In the context of videogame development what are shaders? I just can’t wrap my head around the concept.
In: Technology
Imagine a window, it can alter light that passes through it, right?
For example, if it is blue, it will give a blue-ish tint, if its thicker in some places it may distort the image, and so on. It is something between your eyes and the world, that changes how you perceive it.
A shader is something like that: a “layer” that transforms, alter o distorts certain aspects of the image your GPU renders. Unlike a window, most shaders only alter a specific “part” or element in the image, for example, some shaders are for simulating realistic looking water, or shadows, or glass, even liquids, smoke, paint, metal, interiors, stars, visual effects, etc, etc, etc.
They are a powerful tool in the designers arsenal to create beatiful scenes, as they can be tweaked for multiple purposes: like creating the illusion of something that ain´t there, or add detail to an effect, shadow, texture or object.
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