Slayout Tools

Slayout Tools is a Visual Studio Code extension that provides:

• Syntax highlighting for .slayout files (custom shader layout definitions)
• Macro highlighting in .shader files
• Hover support for macros, showing per-backend definitions from macros.json

Features

• Syntax Highlighting

  • Highlights macros in both .slayout and .shader files
  • Custom scopes defined for macro tokens

• Hover Tooltip for Macros

  • Hovering over a macro like %MY_MACRO in a .shader file shows definitions from macros.json
  • Displays backend-specific versions (GLSL, HLSL, SPIR-V, MSL, etc.)
  • Supports directory scanning — finds macros.json in sibling folders near the shader file

Folder Structure Example

To enable hover support, your project should contain:

project/
├── example/
│ ├── input.shader
| ├── layout.slayout
│ └── outputs/
│   └── macros.json

• When you hover over a macro in my_shader.shader, the extension will automatically look for macros.json in any subfolder of the same directory (like outputs/) and use it to populate tooltips.

Macro Format

The macros.json file should contain backend-specific definitions per macro name. This file is generated automatically when using this repo, you do not need to do anything extra, just build the shaders at least once.

Example of metadata file:

{
  "LIGHT_BLOCK": {
    "glsl": "uniform Light { vec3 direction; };",
    "hlsl": "cbuffer Light : register(b0) { float3 direction; };",
    "msl": "constant Light& light [[buffer(0)]];",
    "lazy": false
  }
}

Requirements

• VS Code v1.100.0 or newer
• macros.json file in an accessible subdirectory for tooltips