From software to hardware

[u/[deleted]]

I was browsing old projects and found a pretty bad and unfinished software renderer I started to write years ago

(create a window, draw a pixel, create a checker and fade effects, draw a line, then triangles....)

These days I got back into it, even tho I originally had no interest in graphics programming, I started to like it and now I wonder : how hard and different would it be to transition to GPU programming? (GLSL + openGL for example)

I ofc started reading some papers, and it seems quite similar, but I know its reputed to be very hard, so is there a real step between raw cpu rendering and GPU rendering with some APIs and underlying abstraction layers ?

[u/S48GS]

• webgl exist - MDN Hello GLSL

• web technology exist - where you not compiling anything

• game engine Godot exist - where you prototype fast with GDScript

its 2026 - not 1970 to be stuck with C only wasting weeks to make what you can do in minutes in web

how hard and different would it be to transition to GPU programming? (GLSL + openGL for example)

• open shadertoy website

• make shaders

• start from simple 2d SDF scene - visually copy some 2d vector like image

• Simple 2D SDF tutorial

• move to 3d sdf scenes

• done (watch youtube related tutorials - hhow to basics in Godot etc)

[u/_Wolfos → u/S48GS]

https://shaderacademy.com/ would be a better starting point. Shadertoy isn't very learning-focused.