BESL language reference
Write portable Byte Engine shaders with BESL.
Use the Byte Engine Shader Language (BESL) to write shader source that works with the material pipeline, resource reflection, render-model generation, and platform shader generation.
BESL uses Rust-inspired syntax, but it is a separate language. Byte Engine parses the source, resolves it into a semantic graph, applies render-model transformations, and emits code for the active graphics backend.
Check backend support
Byte Engine generates GLSL, HLSL, and MSL. Most BESL is portable, but task stages, image atomics, subgroup operations, and half precision have specific backend or stage requirements. See stage and backend support.
Create a BESL file
A BESL file contains declarations for structs, constants, resource bindings,
interface inputs and outputs, helper functions, and a main function.
VertexInput: struct {
position: vec3f,
normal: vec3f,
uv: vec2f,
}
albedo: descriptor<Texture2D, 0, read>;
uv: input<vec2f, 0>;
color: output<vec4f, 0>;
main: fn () -> void {
let texel: vec4f = sample(albedo, uv);
color = texel;
}The parser records the source structure. The lexer then resolves names, types, members, intrinsics, and references.
Use this reference
- Language covers declarations, values, and control flow.
- Interface covers stage inputs, outputs, descriptors, shared storage, and stage metadata.
- Intrinsics lists built-in math, texture, image, atomic, compute, task, and mesh operations.
- Compilation and reflection explains the semantic graph, optimization, generated extensions, reflection, and the VM.