building a dual synchronized dag engine: audio dsp and gpu shaders in lockstep

Description and use

Infinite synchronizes audio DSP and GPU shaders in real time, eliminating latency and jitter by using atomic modulation arrays and a shared transport clock.

Problem

Audio and visual pipelines run in separate universes, causing latency and jitter when synchronized via OSC, MIDI clock, or Syphon.

Outcome

Audio and visual outputs are synchronized to sample accuracy without added latency, enabling real‑time multimedia performances.

Workflow

• 1. Master transport clock coordinates tick‑accurate time across both sub‑graphs.
• 2. Audio buffers produce 8‑band FFT analysis and onset peaks, writing into atomic double‑buffered modulation arrays.
• 3. Shader uniforms read directly from these arrays during the render pass, removing frame‑delay buffering.
• 4. Hosted AU and VST3 plugin parameters can be modulated by 3D scene coordinates, JavaScript sketches, or LFO generators.

Evidence

how infinite synchronizes a sample-accurate, pull-based audio graph with a real-time opengl texture pipeline in c++.

Source

audio buffers produce real-time 8-band fft analysis and onset peaks that write into atomic double-buffered modulation arrays.

Source

shader uniforms (glsl) read directly from these modulation arrays during the render pass, eliminating frame-delay buffering.

Source

infinite is open source (mit/gplv3) and runs cross-platform on macos, windows, and linux.

Source