Initial situation
I want to visualize simulation data in openGL. My data consists of particle positions (x, y, z) where each particle has some properties (like density, temperature, ...) which will be used for coloring. Those (SPH) particles (100k to several millions), grouped together, actually represent planets, in case you wonder. I want to render those particles as small 3D spheres and add ambient, diffuse and specular lighting.
Status quo and questions
- In MY case: In which coordinate frame do I do the lightning calculations? Which way is the "best" to pass the various components through the pipeline?
I saw that it is common to do it in view space which is also very intuitive. However: The normals at the different fragment positions are calculated in the fragment shader in clip space coordinates (see appended fragment shader). Can I actually convert them "back" into view space to do the lightning calculations in view space for all the fragments? Would there be any advantage compared to doing it in clip space?
- It would be easier to get the normals in view space if I would use meshes for each sphere but I think with several million particles this would decrease performance drastically, so better do it with sphere intersection, would you agree?
PS: I don't need a model matrix since all the particles are already in place.
//VERTEX SHADER
#version 330 core
layout (location = 0) in vec3 position;
layout (location = 2) in float density;
uniform float radius;
uniform vec3 lightPos;
uniform vec3 viewPos;
out vec4 lightDir;
out vec4 viewDir;
out vec4 viewPosition;
out vec4 posClip;
out float vertexColor;
// transformation matrices
uniform mat4 model;
uniform mat4 view;
uniform mat4 projection;
void main()
{
lightDir = projection * view * vec4(lightPos - position, 1.0f);
viewDir = projection * view * vec4(viewPos - position, 1.0f);
viewPosition = projection * view * vec4(lightPos, 1.0f);
posClip = projection * view * vec4(position, 1.0f);
gl_Position = posClip;
gl_PointSize = radius;
vertexColor = density;
}
- I know that projective divion happens for the gl_Position variable, does that actually happen to ALL vec4's which are passed from the vertex to the fragment shader? If not, maybe the calculations in the fragment shader would be wrong?
And the fragment shader where the normals and diffuse/specular lightning calculations in clip space:
//FRAGMENT SHADER
#version 330 core
in float vertexColor;
in vec4 lightDir;
in vec4 viewDir;
in vec4 posClip;
in vec4 viewPosition;
uniform vec3 lightColor;
vec4 colormap(float x); // returns vec4(r, g, b, a)
out vec4 vFragColor;
void main(void)
{
// AMBIENT LIGHT
float ambientStrength = 0.0;
vec3 ambient = ambientStrength * lightColor;
// Normal calculation done in clip space (first from texture (gl_PointCoord 0 to 1) coord to NDC( -1 to 1))
vec3 normal;
normal.xy = gl_PointCoord * 2.0 - vec2(1.0); // transform from 0->1 point primitive coords to NDC -1->1
float mag = dot(normal.xy, normal.xy); // sqrt(x=1) = sqrt(x)
if (mag > 1.0) // discard fragments outside sphere
discard;
normal.z = sqrt(1.0 - mag); // because x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = 1
// DIFFUSE LIGHT
float diff = max(0.0, dot(vec3(lightDir), normal));
vec3 diffuse = diff * lightColor;
// SPECULAR LIGHT
float specularStrength = 0.1;
vec3 viewDir = normalize(vec3(viewPosition) - vec3(posClip));
vec3 reflectDir = reflect(-vec3(lightDir), normal);
float shininess = 64;
float spec = pow(max(dot(vec3(viewDir), vec3(reflectDir)), 0.0), shininess);
vec3 specular = specularStrength * spec * lightColor;
vFragColor = colormap(vertexColor / 8) * vec4(ambient + diffuse + specular, 1);
}
- Now this actually "kind of" works but i have the feeling that also the sides of the sphere which do NOT face the light source are being illuminated, which shouldn't happen. How can I fix this?
Some weird effect: In this moment the light source is actually BEHIND the left planet (it just peaks out a little bit at the top left), bit still there are diffuse and specular effects going on. This side should be actually pretty dark! =(
Also at this moment I get some glError: 1282 error in the fragment shader and I don't know where it comes from since the shader program actually compiles and runs, any suggestions? :)
