Shader Programming for Computational Arts and Design - A Comparison between Creative Coding Frameworks

Andrés Colubri,Andrés Felipe Gómez,Jean Pierre Charalambos

doi:10.5220/0005678301610168

Abstract

We describe an Application Program Interface (API) that facilitates the use of GLSL shaders in computational design, interactive arts, and data visualization. This API was first introduced in the version 2.0 of Processing, a programming language and environment widely used for teaching and production in the context of media arts and design, and has been recently completed in the 3.0 release. It aims to incorporate low-level shading programming into code-based design, by integrating traditional models of graphics programming with more expressive approaches afforded by the OpenGL pipeline on modern GPUs. We contrast Processing's shader API with similar interfaces available in other frameworks used in computational arts and design, in order to better understand its advantages and shortcomings.

Highlights

The fields of computational arts and design rely heavily on the use of interactive Computer Graphics (CG)
As graphics hardware and Application Program Interface (API) continue to evolve at rapid pace, the widespread availability of programmable Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and shading languages such as GLSL (Rost, 2009)
We described a shader API currently implemented in the Processing programming language

Summary

A Comparison between Creative Coding Frameworks

We describe an Application Program Interface (API) that facilitates the use of GLSL shaders in computational design, interactive arts, and data visualization This API was first introduced in the version 2.0 of Processing, a programming language and environment widely used for teaching and production in the context of media arts and design, and has been recently completed in the 3.0 release. It aims to incorporate low-level shading programming into code-based design, by integrating traditional models of graphics programming with more expressive approaches afforded by the OpenGL pipeline on modern GPUs. We contrast Processing's shader API with similar interfaces available in other frameworks used in computational arts and design, in order to better understand its advantages and shortcomings

INTRODUCTION

SHADER API IN PROCESSING

Notes xyz in world coordinates

Custom Vertex Attributes

Extending Pshader

SHADER API COMPARISON

RESULTS

CONCLUSIONS