The GLSL Tutorial is now available in the new layout. Check it
out here. In this tutorial shader programming using GLSL will be
covered. Shaders are a hot topic and 3D games have shown that
they can be put to good use to get remarkable effects. This
tutorial aims at providing an introduction to the world of
shaders. There is an introduction to the specification, but
reading the OpenGL 2.0 and GLSL official specs is always
recommended if you get serious about this. It is assumed that
the reader is familiar with OpenGL programming, as this is
required to understand some parts of the tutorial. GLSL stands
for GL Shading Language, often referred as glslang, and was
defined by the Architectural Review Board of OpenGL, the
governing body of OpenGL. I won't go into disputes, or
comparisons, with Cg, Nvidia's proposal for a shading language
that is also compatible with OpenGL. The only reason I chose
GLSL and not Cg for this tutorial, is GLSL closeness to OpenGL.
Before writing shaders, in any language, it is a good