OpenGL Shading Language

Praise for OpenGL® Shading Language

“OpenGL® Shading Language provides a timely, thorough, and entertaining introduction to the only OpenGL ARB-approved high-level shading language in existence. Whether an expert or a novice, there are gems to be discovered throughout the book, and the reference pages will be your constant companion as you dig into the depths of the shading APIs. From algorithms to APIs, this book has you covered.”

     ―Bob Kuehne
         CEO, Blue Newt Software

“Computer graphics and rendering technologies just took a giant leap forward with hardware vendors rapidly adopting the new OpenGL Shading Language. This book presents a detailed treatment of these exciting technologies in a way that is extremely helpful for visualization and game developers.”

     ―Andy McGovern
         Founder, Virtual Geographics, Inc.

“The OpenGL Shading Language is at the epicenter of the programmable graphics revolution, and Randi Rost has been at the center of the development of this significant new industry standard. If you need the inside track on how to use the OpenGL Shading Language to unleash new visual effects, and unlock the supercomputer hiding inside the new generation of graphics hardware, then this is the book for you.”

     ―Neil Trevett
         Senior Vice President Market Development, 3Dlabs

"The author has done an excellent job at setting the stage for shader development, what the purpose is, how to do it, and how it all fits together."
―Jeffery Galinovsky
Strategic Software Program Manager, Intel Corporation

The OpenGL® Shading Language, a high-level procedural shading language for OpenGL®, is the most important new development in graphics programming to emerge in years. OpenGL is the leading cross-platform 3D-graphics API, and the OpenGL Shading Language allows developers to take total control over the most important stages of the graphics-processing pipeline.

OpenGL® Shading Language is the experienced application programmer's guide to writing shaders. Part reference, part tutorial, this book thoroughly explains the shift from fixed-functionality graphics hardware to the new era of programmable graphics hardware and the additions to the OpenGL API that support this programmability. With OpenGL and shaders written in the OpenGL Shading Language, applications can perform better, achieving stunning graphics effects by utilizing the capabilities of both the visual processing unit and the central processing unit.

In this book, you will find a detailed introduction to the OpenGL Shading Language and the new OpenGL function calls that support it. The text begins by describing the syntax and semantics of this high-level programming language. Once this foundation has been established, the book explores the creation and manipulation of shaders using new OpenGL function calls.

OpenGL® Shading Language features extensive examples of shaders and their underlying algorithms, including

• Procedural texturing
• Noise
• Particle systems
• Hatching
• Analytic antialiasing
• Image processing

The color plate section illustrates the power and sophistication of the OpenGL Shading Language. The API Function Reference at the end of the book is an excellent quick reference to the API entry points that support the OpenGL Shading Language. An enhanced online index allows readers to quickly and easily search the entire text for specific topics.

Randi Rost is an ISV Manager in the Software and Solutions Group at Intel. Randy serves on the OpenGL ARB, led the 3Dlabs team responsible for defining and implementing OpenGL 2.0, and is one of the first programmers to design and implement shaders using the OpenGL Shading Language.