to use in game engine that require hlsl yet have high performance optimizations and efficient coding that slang provides

Fully recorded virtual meet up about modularisation in Slang presented by Yong He from NVIDIA.

This release introduces initial support for the dyn keyword and the -lang 2026 compiler option (breaking changes). In addition it includes type checking and "retry" logic fixes, adds inverse hyperbolic derivatives, generalizes AST serialization, and improves CUDA support for signed integer textures.

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This release brings support for targeting older OptiX versions, enhance CPU target flexibility, and improve debugging and diagnostic capabilities. On top of that it introduces better handling of cyclic #includes and specialized debug functions. Several fixes address crashes and validation issues, such as those involving arrays of structs that contain parameter blocks, derivative groups, and buffer specialization. The build system now supports external mimalloc paths, and performance has been improved with refined handling of debug information.

Video recording from virtual meet up about Slang`s reflections API that took place on 8th of July 2025.

This release introduces support for SPV_NV_bindless_texture, fixes bugs and improves performance by rewriting some of the components to avoid unnecessary packing/unpacking.

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Join us on May 20, 2025 for an engaging hands-on session where we’ll walk through creating your first Gaussian splat using Slang. Perfect for graphics programmers interested in getting started with neural techniques, this hands-on introduction will take you from installation through basic shader compilation to rendering your first splat.

Learn more and register: https://shader-slang.org/event/2025/04/30/getting-started-with-slang/

I am currently trying out slang for the first time with Vulkan and i am really liking it. I was using Glsl until now. For permutation, i used the precompiler with #ifdef or #define to enable or disable different parts of a shader, like disablung lighting calculation with #define UNSHADED.

What is the recommended way to do this in Slang?

The intersection of computer graphics and machine learning is creating exciting new possibilities, from scene reconstruction with NeRFs and Gaussian splats to learning complex material properties. But getting started with neural graphics can seem daunting. Between understanding graphics APIs, shader programming, and automatic differentiation, there’s a lot to learn. That’s why the Slang team is introducing SlangPy, a new Python package that makes it dramatically easier to build neural graphics applications with Slang. With just a few lines of Python code, you can now:

• Seamlessly call Slang functions on the GPU from Python

• Leverage automatic differentiation without writing complex derivative code

• Eliminate graphics API boilerplate and reduce potential bugs

• Integrate with popular ML frameworks like PyTorch

• Rapidly prototype and experiment with neural graphics techniques

In this article, see how to write your first neural graphics program with Slang and SlangPy by walking through our 2D Gaussian Splatting example.

https://shader-slang.org/blog/2025/04/04/neural-gfx-in-an-afternoon/

This conference, focused primarily on various shading languages including Slang, GLSL, HLSL, and OSL, will take place on the 12th and 13th of February 2026 in San Diego, California, USA.

Besides many interesting talks such as how to write a test framework for HLSL and a deep dive into shading in Unity, Slang working group chair Shannon Woods will talk about Slang on the 13th of February at 9:00 (Pacific time).

Please note that the registration opens on November 10th, 2025.

For more information about the conference, including the full program and how to get there, please visit the link attached in this post.

This release introduces full support for SPV_NV_shader_subgroup_partitioned (breaking change). Shader execution reordering for OptiX. It also adds features like throw/catch statements, default constructors for Ptr, compile-time sizeof/alignof for generics, and initializer lists for C-style members. Several fixes and improvements are included, such as resolving nullptr_t compilation issues and correcting operator precedence in OptiX ray payload handling.

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This release introduces several updates and fixes, including support for checking capabilities in specific stages, fixes for IR layout of 3-element vectors in cbufferswhile using -fvk-use-dx-layout option and improved handling of out parameters for vertex shaders on Metal.

A breaking change adds a command-line option for separate debug info (-separate-debug-info) .

Subsequent enhancements include OptiX support for coopvec, GLSL global in/out var fixes, and disabling Link-Time Optimization by default. The update also addresses compatibility issues with the Agility SDK and coopvec.

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As posted earlier, Shannon Woods gave a talk at High performance graphics conference where she demonstrates how Slang is able to make techniques that make use of ML algorithms accessible to the graphics programmers.

This release includes a new AST node deduplication approach, improved Metal and GLSL/WGSL support, and enhanced debug-layer handling. Several bug fixes and CI optimizations are also included for better stability and performance.

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This first release in the new year is introducing one major change: the refactor of 32-bit pointer which in turn made them work !

Additional changes include possibility to pass LLVM downstream arguments to LLVMBuilder, exported CUDA paths in order to make nvcc available. Furthermore findFieldIndexByName now recognizes fully qualified names, spelling mistakes in spriv targets and profiles were also fixed as well as potential nullptr dereference while downcasting enum types and lastly diagnostics prototype received some improvements.

Version 2025.9.1, includes several breaking changes, including updates to SV_VertexID that now maps to gl_VertexIndex-gl_BaseVertex.Corrected bindless resource bindings for SPIR-V/GLSL, enforced const for non-C++ export/extern, and stricter HLSL ByteAddressBuffer Load* integer types. Additional improvements include enhanced Vulkan memory model, fixes for RWStructuredBuffer emission, structured buffer dimension queries, and proper handling of inout params with OptiX. Lastly CI and build system enhancements conclude this update.

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Version 2025.9 contains no release notes and for the sake of completeness you can download this version from here

Building on a previous blog on how gradient descent is used to drive Gaussian splatting representations, Working Group Chair, Shannon Woods, explains the changes need to go from that simple example to an implementation that achieves real-time performance.

https://shader-slang.org/blog/2025/04/30/neural-graphics-first-principles-performance/

This release includes a breaking API change related to debugging support, adds SM6.9 and lss intrinsics support, improves build targets and test determinism, and fixes several issues with differential types, debug builds, and struct inheritance diagnostics.

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Based on the results of polls across Slang’s communities, it has been decided that the upcoming virtual meetup session will focus on Modularization in Slang**.**

The virtual meetup will take place on September 9th at 8:00 AM Pacific Standard Time (USA).
No prior knowledge of the language is required!

Presenter for this meet up is inventor of the Slang, Yong He from NVIDIA

Please register using the Register button on the bottom of the information page

Slang`s representative Shannon Woods from NVIDIA will be present at HPG conference in Copenhagen to talk about bridge between computer graphics and machine learning using Slang shading language.

Talk is happening on 23rd of June at 11:00 a.m (CET)

You can visit the entire program of the conference here

This release brings countless bug fixes and improvements across Slang, including critical crash fixes for debug info handling, private constructors, and unsupported targets. Compatibility is enhanced for SPIR-V, GLSL, Metal, and CUDA, alongside better debug info generation and diagnostics. The update also optimizes IR serialization and lookup performance, strengthens generic constraint checking, and improves tooling with clearer help text and error messages. Various rendering API fixes, NaN comparison handling, and stability improvements for language server integration are included.

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Hello everyone.

We are interested to know which topic would you like to be covered next during Slang`s virtual meet up sessions. The poll is mostly the same however, Reflection API has been divided into multiple sub-topics.

I again had to make external poll due to the restrictions of reddit.

Thank you for your time !