One thing to bear in mind with shaders is that they will greatly diminish portability. Many portable graphics chipsets in the wild have little or no support for them. And, like programming for the browser in javascript, there are very annoying bugs that vary from chipset to chipset. Also, some implementations of shaders are done in software (e.g., older MacBooks/iBooks) thus performance can vary a lot.
So if you plan to distribute your application, be prepared for those issues. One way to get good portability, and still take advantage of newer OpenGL features, is to make everything work against the OpenGL ES feature set, which is a sort of lowest common denominator. Then layer on shaders and whatnot in a way that they can degrade gracefully when they aren't available or fully implemented. That may be more complicated overall than just using shaders for everything, but it can be implemented in stages. -Casey On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 2:40 AM, Jonathan Hartley <[email protected]> wrote: >> Curses. I haven't even looked at shaders yet. :) >> >> Gumm > > I put off looking at shaders for years, thinking that there was plenty > in OpenGL that I hadn't figured out yet, so why add even further to > the complications? When I finally sat down to figure shaders out, I > wished I had done it right from the start. As Tristam says, some > things turn out simpler. > > Personally, I used the OpenGL Orange Book to get me started on > shaders, although be warned that, like the other official OpenGL > books, it does focus on the theory of OpenGL-the-interface too much at > some times, completely ignoring all details of any particular > implementation. This gives it a timeless relevance, but mean that it > does things like describe in loving detail functions which exist in > the spec but are not actually implemented by most graphics cards/ > drivers (e.g. perlin noise generators.) > > I just ordered the OpenGL SuperBible this week. I understand the > latest 5th edition is now written entirely in an 'opengl 3 using > shaders' style. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "pyglet-users" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/pyglet-users?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "pyglet-users" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pyglet-users?hl=en.
