Shaders in Modern Video Games: Rendering Dynamic 3D Objects in GLSL

Abstract

The recent growth of the computer graphics industry, specifically in the realm of gaming, has resulted in the desire for more realistic graphics. The initial assumption is that realistic graphics mean that object meshes should be more detailed—that they should have more vertices, edges, and faces, but this would lead to increased latency because of the file size and rendering demands on the GPU. The current solution to this problem is to use graphical shaders which implement graphics inside of the GPUs rendering pipeline, making them fast and efficient. This report details the implementation of the video game Space Otterssey, a desktop game with graphics that mostly rely on GLSL shaders. Space Otterssey proves that graphic shaders can be used to create a visually pleasing game that prioritizes the user’s gameplay experience.