[lxgr]

Ah, sorry, then I carried over an assumption from OpenGL (where GLSL is actually what's packaged, or at least was a couple of years ago when I last looked at it).

In any case, that intermediate representation is probably still easier to compile to hardware-specific code, especially if the hardware has a Direct3D implementation. That's what it's designed for, after all!

[Sesse__]

OpenGL also supports SPIR-V, a similar intermediate format, since 2017 (it came into core in OpenGL 4.6).

[account42]

Technically true but if you are going to use SPIR-V you might as well jump over to Vulkan. Do you know of any OpenGL games that actually ship SPIR-V? I can imagine it getting used in CAD applications with huge legacy OpenGL code bases but for Games OpenGL+SPIR-V doesn't really have a good use case.

[Sesse__]

I guess not a lot of games really use OpenGL at all anymore? But I haven't gone around and tried making a survey. :-)