Getting Started

If you want to understand the governing principles behind LambdaCube 3D, you should consult the Conceptual Overview.

If you just want to see something running right away, we recommend checking out the online editor.

If you want to develop a Haskell application using LambdaCube 3D, just read on.

Hello world in Haskell

LambdaCube is available on Hackage, which should make it easy for Haskell developers to get things rolling. For the purpose of this guide we assume that you already have a working Haskell environment (GHC with cabal-install) set up. It is best to start by installing the lambdacube-gl package, which provides the Haskell OpenGL backend for LambdaCube 3D.

$ cabal install lambdacube-gl

Note that this step also installs lambdacube-ir, which is the core library (IR stands for “intermediate representation”). This library provides the machinery to load compiled pipeline descriptions – a JSON based format – for use in the backend.

The lambdacube-gl package contains a Hello World example to demonstrate the basic usage of the GL backend. To gain access to the example, we need to unpack the backend package:

$ cabal unpack lambdacube-gl
$ cd lambdacube-gl-[VERSION]/examples

Afterwards, we can run the example that executes the precompiled pipeline (hello.json):

$ cabal install GLFW-b
$ ghc --make Hello
$ ./Hello

In order to turn LambdaCube 3D source files into JSON descriptions, we will also need lambdacube-compiler:

$ cabal install lambdacube-compiler

The compiler package installs an executable called lc and a library that exposes the same functionality. With the compiler present, we can produce the JSON description from the hello.lc source file also included in the example:

$ lc hello.lc

When developing a LambdaCube 3D application, the recommended way of dealing with *.lc files is to invoke the compiler as an external tool (which would be bundled with the application upon release), and load the resulting JSON pipeline description using the backend API.

As an alternative, it is also possible to access the compiler functionality through the library. This option is demonstrated in the second variant of the example, which directly reads the hello.lc pipeline source:

$ ghc --make HelloEmbedded
$ ./HelloEmbedded

Let’s have a closer look at the first Hello World variant. Below follows the full source of the example.

Hello.hs

First we get the imports out of the way.

{-# LANGUAGE PackageImports, LambdaCase, OverloadedStrings #-}
import "GLFW-b" Graphics.UI.GLFW as GLFW
import qualified Data.Map as Map
import qualified Data.Vector as V

import LambdaCube.GL as LambdaCubeGL -- renderer
import LambdaCube.GL.Mesh as LambdaCubeGL

import Codec.Picture as Juicy

import Data.Aeson
import qualified Data.ByteString as SB

Then we start with the entry point of the program.

main :: IO ()
main = do

As a first step, we initialise the window using GLFW. This has to be done before accessing any GPU functionality.

    win <- initWindow "LambdaCube 3D DSL Hello World" 640 640

Next, we define the shape of the input to the rendering pipeline as required by the backend. The schema is a pure data structure that lists the names and types of primitive streams (defObjectArray) and uniforms (defUniforms) that the pipeline can process. The names and types have to agree with those in the pipeline description (see hello.lc below).

For the curious, the schema is a writer monad at heart, and do notation is only used for convenience to easily merge different schema fragments.

    let inputSchema = makeSchema $ do
          defObjectArray "objects" Triangles $ do
            "position"  @: Attribute_V2F
            "uv"        @: Attribute_V2F
          defUniforms $ do
            "time"           @: Float
            "diffuseTexture" @: FTexture2D

Given the schema, we create a container that will hold the input to the pipeline at any given time. If we think of the pipeline as a pure function, this is the place that stores the argument for the next application.

    storage <- LambdaCubeGL.allocStorage inputSchema

Now that we have the storage, we can populate it with the pipeline input. We have two triangles that form a square when put together (just to demonstrate the use of multiple meshes), and a texture.

    LambdaCubeGL.uploadMeshToGPU triangleA >>= LambdaCubeGL.addMeshToObjectArray storage "objects" []
    LambdaCubeGL.uploadMeshToGPU triangleB >>= LambdaCubeGL.addMeshToObjectArray storage "objects" []

    Right img <- Juicy.readImage "logo.png"
    textureData <- LambdaCubeGL.uploadTexture2DToGPU img

At this point we can load the pipeline itself. Note that the input data is independent of the pipeline itself, and the two can be freely swapped out separately.

    Just pipelineDesc <- decodeStrict <$> SB.readFile "hello.json"
    renderer <- LambdaCubeGL.allocRenderer pipelineDesc

All the building blocks are in place, but we still need to connect them. The setStorage function associates the storage with the pipeline and checks that the two are compatible. If there is a schema mismatch, it returns the error message wrapped in Just, otherwise it returns Nothing. In the latter case we are ready to enter the rendering loop.

    LambdaCubeGL.setStorage renderer storage >>= \case
      Just err -> putStrLn err
      Nothing  -> loop
        where loop = do

In this example our main loop is directly implemented in the IO monad. First we tell the pipeline the current dimensions of the window so it can configure the viewport.

                (w, h) <- GLFW.getWindowSize win
                LambdaCubeGL.setScreenSize storage (fromIntegral w) (fromIntegral h)

Afterwards, we update the input of the pipeline. In this case only uniforms need to be changed on every frame. Since the texture actually stays the same, we could have set diffuseTexture just once in the beginning before starting the loop.

                LambdaCubeGL.updateUniforms storage $ do
                  "diffuseTexture" @= return textureData
                  "time" @= do
                              Just t <- GLFW.getTime
                              return (realToFrac t :: Float)

Now that the input is properly set, we can render the frame. This is where we conceptually apply the pipeline function to the currently stored argument.

                LambdaCubeGL.renderFrame renderer
                GLFW.swapBuffers win

Finally, we check whether Escape is pressed and leave the loop if it is.

                GLFW.pollEvents
                let keyIsPressed k = fmap (==KeyState'Pressed) $ GLFW.getKey win k
                escape <- keyIsPressed Key'Escape
                if escape then return () else loop

The only thing left is the final cleanup.

    LambdaCubeGL.disposeRenderer renderer
    LambdaCubeGL.disposeStorage storage
    GLFW.destroyWindow win
    GLFW.terminate

After the main function we define the input geometry: two separate triangles. Both meshes have a position and a UV attribute defined for each vertex.

triangleA :: LambdaCubeGL.Mesh
triangleA = Mesh
    { mAttributes   = Map.fromList
        [ ("position",  A_V2F $ V.fromList [V2 1 1, V2 1 (-1), V2 (-1) (-1)])
        , ("uv",        A_V2F $ V.fromList [V2 1 1, V2 0 1, V2 0 0])
        ]
    , mPrimitive    = P_Triangles
    }

triangleB :: LambdaCubeGL.Mesh
triangleB = Mesh
    { mAttributes   = Map.fromList
        [ ("position",  A_V2F $ V.fromList [V2 1 1, V2 (-1) (-1), V2 (-1) 1])
        , ("uv",        A_V2F $ V.fromList [V2 1 1, V2 0 0, V2 1 0])
        ]
    , mPrimitive    = P_Triangles
    }

At the end we define the window initialising function, which is basically GLFW boilerplate.

initWindow :: String -> Int -> Int -> IO Window
initWindow title width height = do
    GLFW.init
    GLFW.defaultWindowHints
    mapM_ GLFW.windowHint
      [ WindowHint'ContextVersionMajor 3
      , WindowHint'ContextVersionMinor 3
      , WindowHint'OpenGLProfile OpenGLProfile'Core
      , WindowHint'OpenGLForwardCompat True
      ]
    Just win <- GLFW.createWindow width height title Nothing Nothing
    GLFW.makeContextCurrent $ Just win
    return win

hello.lc

The hello pipeline starts with a dark blue background, and renders 2D triangle meshes by rotating them around the Z axis and applying a texture. For details on the building blocks of the pipeline you can refer to the Conceptual Overview.

makeFrame (time :: Float)
          (texture :: Texture)
          (prims :: PrimitiveStream Triangle (Vec 2 Float, Vec 2 Float))

    = imageFrame ((emptyColorImage (V4 0 0 0.4 1)))
  `overlay`
      prims
    & mapPrimitives (\(p,uv) -> (rotMatrixZ time *. (V4 p%x p%y (-1) 1), uv))
    & rasterizePrimitives (TriangleCtx CullNone PolygonFill NoOffset LastVertex) ((Smooth))
    & mapFragments (\((uv)) -> ((texture2D (Sampler PointFilter MirroredRepeat texture) uv)))
    & accumulateWith ((ColorOp NoBlending (V4 True True True True)))

main = renderFrame $
   makeFrame (Uniform "time")
             (Texture2DSlot "diffuseTexture")
             (fetch "objects" (Attribute "position", Attribute "uv"))