glsl Tag Posts Index

Colors in GLSL: A Beginner’s Guide to Shaders and Color Control

Color in GLSL is one of the first things that makes shader programming feel alive. You go from abstract math to something visible, expressive, and instantly creative.

Understanding UV in GLSL: The Key to Mapping Space in Shaders

UV coordinates are one of the most fundamental ideas in GLSL, yet they are often misunderstood when you first start working with shaders. At their core, UVs are

Are Vector Components Constants in GLSL? Understanding What Vectors Really Are - TUTORIAL 7

One question almost every shader beginner asks is whether vector components such as .r, .g, .b, .x, .y, and .z are fixed values or special constants. The short answer

Textures and Swizzling in GLSL: How Shaders Read and Rearrange Data : Lesson 6

When most people start learning shaders, textures seem straightforward. They are images made up of pixels. But in GLSL, textures are much more than images. They

Drawing Curves with Math Using `pow()` - lesson 5 - GLSL

This is the fifth post in the GLSL learning series. Previous posts: Learning GLSL as a Beginner Understanding gl_Position: My First Real Vertex Shader Fragment Shaders

Drawing a Diagonal Line with GLSL

This is the fourth post in the GlSL learning series. Learning GLSL as a Beginner Understanding gl-Position: My First Real Vertex Shader Fragment Shaders Made Simple:

Fragment Shaders Made Simple: What gl-FragColor Does

This is a fragment shader written in GLSL (used in WebGL / Three.js / TouchDesigner-style pipelines). This is the 3rd post in the GlSL learning series. Learning

Understanding gl-Position: My First Real Vertex Shader

This is part 2 of learning about GlSL: This is a very common vertex shader, especially in libraries like Three.js. const vshader = ` void main() { gl_Position =

Creating Procedural Galaxies and Nebulas in GLSL

Look at images captured by space telescopes. Galaxies are filled with glowing clouds of gas and dust. Some regions appear bright blue. Others glow purple, pink,

Creating a Procedural Night Sky and Stars in GLSL

When you look into the night sky, the stars seem randomly scattered. Some are bright. Some are barely visible. Some appear grouped together while others sit alone.

Creating Procedural Clouds in GLSL

Look at the sky on a clear day. Clouds rarely have sharp edges. They slowly grow, merge together, drift across the horizon, and disappear. If you look closely, you'll

Adding Reflections and Highlights to Procedural Water in GLSL

Think about standing beside a lake on a sunny day. The water is not one solid color. Bright highlights appear where sunlight hits the waves. Some parts look dark.

Creating Procedural Water in GLSL

Water is always moving. Sometimes it forms gentle ripples across a lake. Sometimes it crashes into waves. Sometimes it reflects the sky so clearly that it almost

Creating Procedural Smoke in GLSL

Smoke behaves very differently from fire. Fire is energetic. Smoke drifts slowly. It spreads outward. It fades into the air. Instead of sharp movements, smoke relies

Creating Procedural Fire in GLSL

Fire is constantly changing. The flames stretch upward. They flicker from side to side. They become thinner near the top. Every moment looks different, yet the movement

Creating Procedural Wood Grain in GLSL

Look at the cross section of a tree trunk. You'll notice a series of rings spreading outward from the center. These rings aren't perfectly smooth. They bend. They

Creating a Procedural Marble Texture in GLSL

Walk through an old building made from marble and you'll notice something interesting. No two pieces look exactly alike. Every slab contains flowing veins. Some

Domain Warping in GLSL: Distorting Noise to Create Organic Worlds

Imagine looking at your reflection in perfectly still water. Everything appears smooth. Now throw a pebble into the water. The reflection twists. Lines bend. Shapes

Fractal Brownian Motion in GLSL: Building Rich Procedural Noise

If you're new to the series or would like to catch up on the fundamentals, you can find every previous lesson, along with a summary of what each tutorial covers,

Understanding Gradient Noise in GLSL

Value noise was a huge improvement over random pixels. Instead of abrupt jumps, neighboring values blended together. Even so, every grid cell still had a slight