Categories
iphone programming

Why is a Fragment Shader named a Fragment Shader?

I’m writing some KISS tutorials on using OpenGL ES 2.0 in iOS/mobile, because I was frustrated that most of the tutorials on GL ES used incorrect or outdated approaches.

(I’m using the OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide as my baseline, along with my own experiences of game-programming, and checking it all against Khronos Group / OpenGL.org’s docs as I go)

I use this stuff in iOS apps, but … I’m a relative novice with shader-pipelines. So I’ve been leaning on the guys at The Chaos Engine for proofreading and to help me avoid spreading misinformation. Most stuff people broadly agree on, but there’s been some interesting debate over a seemingly trivial question:

Why does OpenGL use the term “Fragment Shaders” to describe the shaders-that-generate-pixels? (where other API’s call the same thing “Pixel Shaders”, a much easier to understand/remember name)

Categories
iphone programming

iOS Open GL ES 2: Vertices, Shaders and Geometry

(this is Part 3; Part 1 has an index of all the posts)

We finished Part 2 with the most basic drawing of all: we filled the screen with a background colour (pink/magenta), but no 3D objects.