Would GPUI benefit from YUV surface rendering on Linux/Windows?

[jlucaso1]

Hi! I wanted to gauge interest before submitting a PR.

What I Built

I've implemented YUV video surface rendering for GPUI on Linux/Windows, bringing feature parity with macOS's existing CVPixelBuffer support. The implementation is complete and working in my fork:

Branch: https://github.com/jlucaso1/zed/tree/gpui-yuv-surface-linux-windows

Why I Built It

I'm building a WhatsApp desktop client using GPUI and needed to render video frames from FFmpeg. On macOS, GPUI already supports this via CVPixelBuffer, but Linux/Windows had no equivalent.

What It Does

• Adds YuvFormat (NV12/I420) and YuvFrameData types
• Adds surface() element for non-macOS platforms
• GPU-based YUV→RGB conversion (BT.601 shader)
• Texture caching to avoid per-frame GPU allocations

// Usage is simple:
let frame = YuvFrameData {
    format: YuvFormat::I420,
    width: 1920,
    height: 1080,
    y_plane: Arc::from(y_data),
    u_plane: Arc::from(u_data),
    v_plane: Some(Arc::from(v_data)),
    // ...
};

surface(frame).object_fit(ObjectFit::Contain).size_full()

Potential Use Cases in Zed

I noticed some related issues where this could help:

• Can't screenshare on Wayland (Linux) #28754 - Screen sharing on Linux/Wayland needs video rendering to display incoming streams
• More screen-sharing configurations #4666 - Viewing screen shares inside Zed while editing

This could also benefit GPUI users building:

• Video players
• Camera/webcam previews
• Media preview extensions

My Question

Before submitting a PR, I wanted to ask:

1. Is this something the Zed team would consider merging?
2. Or is this too specialized and better kept as a fork for external projects?

I completely understand if the answer is "keep it in your fork" - I don't want to add maintenance burden for a feature Zed isn't actively using. Just wanted to offer it upstream in case it's useful.

The implementation is ~500 lines across 5 files, follows existing GPUI patterns, and includes tests.

Thanks for your time!