Chapter 21. Language Comparison

The OpenGL Shading Language is by no means the first graphics shading language ever defined. Here are a few other notable shading languages and a little about how each one compares to the OpenGL Shading Language. Compare the diagrams in this chapter with the OpenGL Shading Language execution model in Figure 2.4 for a visual summary.

Chronology of Shading Languages

Rob Cook and Ken Perlin are usually credited with being the first to develop languages to describe shading calculations. Both of these efforts targeted offline (noninteractive) rendering systems. Perlin’s work included the definition of the noise function and the introduction of control constructs. Cook’s work on shade trees at Lucasfilm (later Pixar) introduced ...

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