Shadertoy is without a doubt one of the most important websites for game developers, as a massive repository of shaders, well over 100K at this point in time. It is also getting a bit long in the tooth and has seen slower and slower development over the years. Longtime Shadertoy user Xor made the following Tweet explaining why he created FragCoord.xyz, his Shadertoy alternative:
I have a lot of respect for ShaderToy, but unfortunately the problems and stagnation has become impossible to ignore:
-Getting stuck on a verification loop, sometimes for minutes
-Select alignment issues
-No updates
-Each shader needs a unique name
-Search is slow and clunky
-Limited resolutions and no control
-Limited video export
-Limited shader passes
-No time control
-No sliders
-No buffer preview
-No brace highlighting
I could go on with stuff that would be nice to have, but overall, it was the problems that pushed me away. I’ve been using ShaderToy since 2014. I’ve learned so much from the community and will always appreciate that.
Although FragCoord has only been public since February 12th, there have already been a number of feature rich additions. Obviously it only has the smallest fraction of a fraction of the content that Shadertoy has, but the tools are all there with several notable improvements over Shadertoy.
Key Links
You can learn more about FragCoord.xyz and see it in action in the video below.