Shader Programming

Master GPU shaders from first principles to advanced raymarching through interactive visualizations

Part 1

First Light

Understanding what shaders are and writing your first one

What is a Shader?

A program that runs per-pixel in parallel on the GPU

Your First Shader

Writing code that paints every pixel on screen

Vectors and Swizzling

The building blocks of shader math

Part 2

The Coordinate Canvas

Mastering the UV coordinate system

UV Coordinates

Your map of the screen

Transforming Space

Moving the coordinate system instead of objects

Rotation

Spinning coordinates with trigonometry

Part 3

Shaping Functions

The vocabulary of shader effects

Step and Smoothstep

Hard edges and soft transitions

Mix, Clamp, and Friends

Blending and constraining values

Fract and Mod

Creating infinite repetition

Part 4

Drawing Shapes

From math functions to visual forms

Circles and Distance

Drawing with the distance function

Signed Distance Functions

The powerful abstraction behind shape rendering

Combining Shapes

Boolean operations on distance fields

Part 5

Motion and Time

Bringing shaders to life

Animation Basics

Using time for smooth oscillation

Easing and Timing

Making motion feel natural

Part 6

Noise and Randomness

Controlled chaos for organic effects

Random and Hash Functions

Deterministic randomness in parallel code

Value and Gradient Noise

Smooth randomness for natural textures

Cellular Noise

Voronoi patterns and Worley noise

Part 7

Procedural Patterns

Creating textures from pure math

Polar Coordinates

Thinking in angles and distances

Procedural Textures

Wood, marble, and beyond

Part 8

Fractal Worlds

Infinite complexity from simple iteration

Fractals

Mandelbrot, Julia sets, and escape-time rendering

Part 9

Image Processing

Working with textures and filters

Texture Sampling

Reading and mapping images in shaders

Convolutions and Filters

Blur, sharpen, and edge detection

Part 10

Simulation

Stateful shaders and feedback effects

Feedback and Simulation

Ping-pong buffers, Game of Life, and reaction-diffusion

Part 11

Color and Light

Understanding color properly

Color Spaces

Beyond RGB to HSV and perceptual color

Lighting Fundamentals

Normals, diffuse, and specular

Part 12

Raymarching

Rendering 3D scenes with pure math

The Raymarching Algorithm

Sphere tracing through distance fields

3D Signed Distance Functions

Shapes in three dimensions

Shading Raymarched Scenes

Lighting, shadows, and atmosphere

Advanced Raymarching

Reflections, materials, and scene composition

Environment Mapping

Reflections, refractions, and skyboxes