Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
15
Using Shaders for
Scientiic Visualization
So far, we have been cuting through the shader world in one direction—exam-
ining diferent capabilities of GLSL. In this chapter, we try cuting in another
direction for a while—looking at an application focus. We will describe several
ways in which shader programming can enhance the display of data. Clearly,
there are many more ways to do this than just the few we illustrate, but the
point is to show how different aspects of shader programming can be brought
to bear on a single problem grouping.
There is much more to scientific visualization than we could begin to
cover in this chapter, of course. Our approach will be to consider how some
shader techniques from the previous chapters can be used for visualization.
These will include image manipulation, geometry modification with vertex
shaders, applications of textures, using fragment shaders to implement trans-
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