Chapter 18. Non-photorealistic Shaders

A significant amount of computer graphics research has been aimed at achieving more and more realistic renditions of synthetic scenes. A long-time goal has been to render a scene so perfectly that it is indistinguishable from a photograph of the real scene, a goal called PHOTOREALISM. With the latest graphics hardware, some photorealistic effects are becoming possible in real-time rendering.

This quest for realism is also reflected in graphics APIs such as OpenGL. The OpenGL specification defines specific formulas for calculating effects such as illumination from light sources, material properties, and fog. These formulas attempt to define effects as realistically as possible while remaining relatively ...

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