Readings 9: Shaders

by Mike Gleicher on October 28, 2014

So this set of readings went out late – because I didn’t expect anyone to look at it until after the exam.

The reading about Shading and Graphics Hardware that we have is from the OpenGL book. As you might expect, this means it’s a little OpenGL specific. Remember, you don’t have to memorize the OpenGL commands (better to look them up when you’re programming) – but you should get an idea of what’s going on. For this reason, it’s OK to read the chapter AFTER the lectures discussing shading. Also, it’s OK to skim the chapter to get a sense of what’s there. Most of it is the details of the shading language. If you have a sense of what’s there (and an understanding of the basics of how things work), you can look up the language details when you need them.

Chapter 15 – The OpenGL Shading Language from the OpenGL Red Book.

This website is a good introduction to the modern OpenGL equivalent to setting up all the C++ side of things, include vertex buffers and stuff like that. It will drive home the point that the programming model is totally based on how the hardware works.

By the way, if you haven’t read up on texturing, now might be a good time to do so.

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