Cross-fade between two textures on a sphere - opengl

I have a 3D scene with only one sphere in it and I have two textures - one for the night, and one for the day of this planet.
In addition I have the a lightSource at (15,15,15) in my scene. For each vertex on the sphere I also have the normal.
Now I want to blend between the two texture so that the fading between day and night seems to be realistic.
Therefore I calculate the angle between the normal and the light using dot-product, but with this approach I get hard crossover if I check if the angle is > 0 (which will be the dayside).
I need to mix the textures based on the angle, that it is a soft crossover.
Can anyone help me how I can mix the textures? My code so far:
float angle = dot(L,N);
vec4 texture = texture2D(day, textureCoord);
texture = texture2D(night,textureCoord) * (1-angle) + texture * angle;
vec4 light = vec4(ambientTerm + diffuseTerm + specularTerm , 1);
if(angle > 0) {
color = light * texture;
} else if(angle >= -0.25) {
color = texture2D(night,textureCoord)*(angle-1) + texture * (angle);
} else if( angle < -0.25) {
color = texture2D(night,textureCoord);
}

You can use the smoothstep function to turn a continous value into a 0/1 decision with a small smooth transition in between. So basically you define a range where the transisition is, let's just take [-0.25,0.25], which would be an angle range from about 75 to 105 degrees (take larger values for a larger transistion area, but try to make it symmetrical, thus centered around 90 degrees, since people switch on their lights at dusk already ;)). Then we transform our [-1,1] monotonic cosine using
angle = smoothstep(-0.25, 0.25, angle)
which will result in angle (though that name is a bit unfortunately chosen, given that it isn't an angle and behaves inverse to the actual angle) being 0 if it was < -0.25, 1 if it was > 0.25 and a smooth transition if in between. And the whole texturing would look like (cleaned from the strange if and making use of the builtin mix function):
float angle = dot(N, L);
vec4 nightColor = texture2D(night, textureCoord);
vec4 dayColor = texture2D(day, textureCoord);
color = light * mix(nightColor, dayColor, smoothstep(-0.25, 0.25, angle));
Or, for the fun and sake of completeness the more streamlined
color = light * mix(texture2D(night, textureCoord),
texture2D(day, textureCoord),
smoothstep(-0.25, 0.25, dot(N, L)));

Related

How can i make GL_POINTS overlap to look like spheres?

I am attempting to create a voxel style game, and I want to use GL_POINTS to simulate spherical voxels.
I am aiming to have them look like 3d spheres without having to render an actual sphere with many vertices.
However, when I created a mass of GL_POINTS, they overlap in a way that makes it obvious that they are flat circle sprites.
Here is an example:
my image example of gl_points overlapping showing circular sprite:
I would like to have the circular GL_POINTS overlap in a way that makes them look like spheres being squished together and hiding parts of each other.
For an example of what I would like to achieve, here is an image showing Star Defenders 3D by Eric Gurt, in which he used spherical points as voxels in Javascript for his levels:
Example image showing points that look like spheres:
As you can see, where the points overlap, they hide parts of each other creating the illusion that they are 3d spheres instead of circular sprites.
Is there a way to replicate this in openGL?
I am using OpenGL 3.3.0.
I have finally implemented a way to make points look like spheres by changing gl_FragDepth.
This is the code from my fragment shader to make a square gl_point into a sphere. (no lighting)
void makeSphere()
{
//clamps fragments to circle shape.
vec2 mapping = gl_PointCoord * 2.0F - 1.0F;
float d = dot(mapping, mapping);
if (d >= 1.0F)
{//discard if the vectors length is more than 0.5
discard;
}
float z = sqrt(1.0F - d);
vec3 normal = vec3(mapping, z);
normal = mat3(transpose(viewMatrix)) * normal;
vec3 cameraPos = vec3(worldPos) + rad * normal;
////Set the depth based on the new cameraPos.
vec4 clipPos = projectionMatrix * viewMatrix * vec4(cameraPos, 1.0);
float ndcDepth = clipPos.z / clipPos.w;
gl_FragDepth = ((gl_DepthRange.diff * ndcDepth) + gl_DepthRange.near + gl_DepthRange.far) / 2.0;
//calc ambient occlusion for circle
if (bool(fAoc))
ambientOcclusion = sqrt(1.0F - d * 0.5F);
}

texture a ball on a sphere has a dark band

I am using this code to generate sphere vertices and textures but as you can see in the image , when I rotate it I can see a dark band.
for (int i = 0; i <= stacks; ++i)
{
float s = (float)i / (float) stacks;
float theta = s * 2 * glm::pi<float>();
for (int j = 0; j <= slices; ++j)
{
float sl = (float)j / (float) slices;
float phi = sl * (glm::pi<float>());
const float x = cos(theta) * sin(phi);
const float y = sin(theta) * sin(phi);
const float z = cos(phi);
sphere_vertices.push_back(radius * glm::vec3(x, y, z));
sphere_texcoords.push_back((glm::vec2((x + 1.0) / 2.0, (y + 1.0) / 2.0)));
}
}
// get the indices
for (int i = 0; i < stacks * slices + slices; ++i)
{
sphere_indices.push_back(i);
sphere_indices.push_back(i + slices + 1);
sphere_indices.push_back(i + slices);
sphere_indices.push_back(i + slices + 1);
sphere_indices.push_back(i);
sphere_indices.push_back(i + 1);
}
I can't figure a way to make it right whatever texture coordinates I used.
Hmm.. If I use another image, then the mapping is different (and worst!)
vertex shader:
#version 330 core
layout (location = 0) in vec3 aPos;
layout (location = 1) in vec3 aTexCoord;
out vec4 vertexColor;
out vec2 TexCoord;
uniform mat4 model;
uniform mat4 view;
uniform mat4 projection;
void main()
{
gl_Position = projection * view * model * vec4(aPos.x, aPos.y, aPos.z, 1.0);
vertexColor = vec4(0.5, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0);
TexCoord = vec2(aTexCoord.x, aTexCoord.y);
}
fragment shader:
#version 330 core
out vec4 FragColor;
in vec4 vertexColor;
in vec2 TexCoord;
uniform sampler2D sphere_texture;
void main()
{
FragColor = texture(sphere_texture, TexCoord);
}
I am not using any lighting conditions.
If I use FragColor = vec4(TexCoord.x, TexCoord.y, 0.0f, 1.0f); in fragment shader (for debugging purposes) , I am receiving a nice sphere.
I am using this as texture:
That image of the tennis ball that you linked reveals the problem. I'm glad you ultimately provided it.
Your image is a four-channel PNG with transparency (Alpha channel). There are transparent pixels all around the outside of the yellow part of the ball that have (R,G,B,A) = (0, 0, 0, 0), so if you're ignoring the A channel then (R, G, B), will be (0, 0, 0) = black.
Here are just the Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) channels:
And here is just the Alpha (A) channel.
The important thing to notice is that the circle of the ball does not fill the square. There is a significant margin of 53 pixels of black from the extent of the ball to the edge of the texture. We can calculate the radius of the ball from this. Half the width is 1000 pixels, of which 53 pixels are not used. The ball's radius is 1000-53, which is 947 pixels. Or about 94.7% of the distance from the center to the edge of the texture. The remaining 5.3% of the distance is black.
Side note: I also notice that your ball doesn't quite reach 100% opacity. The yellow part of the ball has an alpha channel value of 254 (of 255) Meaning 99.6% opaque. The white lines and the shiny hot spot do actually reach 100% opacity, giving it sort of a Death Star look. ;)
To fix your problem, there's the intuitive approach (which may not work) and then there are two things that you need to do that will work. Here are a few things you can do:
Intuitive Solution:
This won't quite get you 100% there.
1) Resize the ball to fill the texture. Use image editing software to enlarge the ball to fill the texture, or to trim off the black pixels. This will just make more efficient use of pixels, for one, but it will ensure that there are useful pixels being sampled at the boundary. You'll probably want to expand the image to be slightly larger than 100%. I'll explain why below.
2) Remap your texture coordinates to only extend to 94.7% of the radius of the ball. (Similar to approach 1, but doesn't require image editing). This just uses coordinates that actually correspond to the image you provided. Your x and y coordinates need to be scaled about the center of the image and reduced to about 94.7%.
x2 = 0.5 + (x - 0.5) * 0.947;
y2 = 0.5 + (y - 0.5) * 0.947;
Suggested Solution:
This will ensure no more black.
3) Fill the "black" portion of your ball texture with a less objectionable colour - probably the colour that is at the circumference of the tennis ball. This ensures that any texels that are sampled at exactly the edge of the ball won't be linearly combined with black to produce an unsightly dark-but-not-quite-black band, which is almost the problem you have right now anyway. You can do this in two ways. A) Image editing software. Remove the transparency from your image and matte it against a dark yellow colour. B) Use the shader to detect pixels that are outside the image and replace them with a border colour (this is clever, but probably more trouble than it's worth.)
Different Texture Coordinates
The last thing you can do is avoid this degenerate texture mapping coordinate problem altogether. At the equator, you're not really sure which pixels to sample. The black (transparent) pixels or the coloured pixels of the ball. The discrete nature of square pixels, is fighting against the polar nature of your texture map. You'll never find the exact colour you need near the edge to produce a continuous, seamless map. Instead, you can use a different coordinate system. I hope you're not attached to how that ball looks, because let me introduce you to the equirectangular projection. It's the same projection that you can naively use to map the globe of the Earth to a typical rectangular map of the world you're likely familiar with where the north and south poles get all the distortion but the equatorial regions look pretty good.
Here's your image mapped to equirectangular coordinates:
Notice that black bar at the bottom...we're onto something! That black bar is actually exactly what appears around the equator of your ball with your current texture mapping coordinate system. But with this coordinate system, you can see easily that if we just remapped the ball to fill the square we'd completely eliminate any transparent pixels at all.
It may be inconvenient to work in this coordinate system, but you can transform your image in Photoshop using Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates... > Polar to Rectangular.
Sigismondo's answer already suggests how to adjust your texture mapping coordinates do this.
And finally, here's a texture that is both enlarged to fill the texture space, and remapped to equirectangular coordinates. No black bars, minimal distortion. But you'll have to use Sigismondo's texture mapping coordinates. Again, this may not be for you, especially if you're attached to the idea of the direct projection for your texture (i.e.: if you don't want to manipulate your tennis ball image and you want to use that projection.) But if you're willing to remap your data, you can rest easy that all the black pixels will be gone!
Good luck! Feel free to ask for clarifications.
I cannot test it, being the code incomplete, but from a rough look I have spotted this problem:
sphere_texcoords.push_back((glm::vec2((x + 1.0) / 2.0, (y + 1.0) / 2.0)));
The texture coordinates should not be evaluated from x and y, being:
const float x = cos(theta) * sin(phi);
const float y = sin(theta) * sin(phi);
but from the angles thta-phi, or stacks-slices. this could work better - untested:
sphere_texcoords.push_back(glm::vec2(s,sl));
being already defined:
float s = (float)i / (float) stacks;
float sl = (float)j / (float) slices;
Furthermore in your code you are using the first and the last "slices" of the sphere as the rest... Shouldn't they be treated differently? This seems quite odd to me - but I don't know whether your implementation is just a simpler one, working fine.
Compare with this explanation, for example: http://www.songho.ca/opengl/gl_sphere.html

Why is my frag shader casting long shadows horizontally and short shadows vertically?

I have the following fragment shader:
#version 330
layout(location=0) out vec4 frag_colour;
in vec2 texelCoords;
uniform sampler2D uTexture; // the color
uniform sampler2D uTextureHeightmap; // the heightmap
uniform float uSunDistance = -10000000.0; // really far away vertically
uniform float uSunInclination; // height from the heightmap plane
uniform float uSunAzimuth; // clockwise rotation point
uniform float uQuality; // used to determine number of steps and steps size
void main()
{
vec4 c = texture(uTexture,texelCoords);
vec2 textureD = textureSize(uTexture,0);
float d = max(textureD.x,textureD.y); // use the largest dimension to determine stepsize etc
// position the sun in the centre of the screen and convert from spherical to cartesian coordinates
vec3 sunPosition = vec3(textureD.x/2,textureD.y/2,0) + vec3( uSunDistance*sin(uSunInclination)*cos(uSunAzimuth),
uSunDistance*sin(uSunInclination)*sin(uSunAzimuth),
uSunDistance*cos(uSunInclination) );
float height = texture2D(uTextureHeightmap, texelCoords).r; // starting height
vec3 direction = normalize(vec3(texelCoords,height) - sunPosition); // sunlight direction
float sampleDistance = 0;
float samples = d*uQuality;
float stepSize = 1.0 / ((samples/d) * d);
for(int i = 0; i < samples; i++)
{
sampleDistance += stepSize; // increase the sample distance
vec3 newPoint = vec3(texelCoords,height) + direction * sampleDistance; // get the coord for the next sample point
float newHeight = texture2D(uTextureHeightmap,newPoint.xy).r; // get the height of that sample point
// put it in shadow if we hit something that is higher than our starting point AND is heigher than the ray we're casting
if(newHeight > height && newHeight > newPoint.z)
{
c *= 0.5;
break;
}
}
frag_colour = c;
}
The purpose is for it to cast shadows based on a heightmap. Pretty nifty, and the results look good.
However, there's a problem where the shadows appear longer when they are horizontal compared to vertical. If I make the window size different, with a window that is taller than wide, I get the opposite effect. I.e., the shadows are casting longer in the longer dimension.
This tells me that it's to do with the way I'm stepping in the above shader, but I can't tell the problem.
To illustrate, here is the with a uSunAzimuth that results in a horizontally cast shadow:
And here is the exact same code with a uSunAzimuth for a vertical shadow:
It's not very pronounced in these low resolution images, but in larger resolutions the effect gets more exaggerated. Essentially; the shadow when you measure how it casts in all 360 degrees of azimuth clears out an ellipse instead of a circle.
The shadow fragment shader operates on a "snapshot" of the viewport. When your scene is rendered and this "snapshot" is generated, then the vertex positions are transformed by the projection matrix. The projection matrix describes the mapping from 3D points of a scene, to 2D points of the viewport and takes in account the aspect ration of the viewport.
(see Both depth buffer and triangle face orientation are reversed in OpenGL,
and Transform the modelMatrix).
This causes that the high map (uTextureHeightmap) represents a rectangular field of view, dependent on the aspect ratio.
But the texture coordinates, which you use to access the height map describe a quad in the range (0, 0) to (1, 1).
This mismatch must be balanced, by scaling with the aspect ratio.
vec3 direction = ....;
float aspectRatio = textureD.x / textureD.y;
direction.xy *= vec2( 1.0/aspectRatio, 1.0 );
I just needed to adjust the direction slightly.
float aspectCorrection = textureD.x / textureD.y;
...
vec3 direction = normalize(vec3(texelCoords,height) - sunPosition);
direction.y *= aspectCorrection;

Variance Shadow Map Depth Issue

I have been trying to get variance shadow mapping to work in my webgl application, but I seem to be having an issue that I could use some help with. In short, my shadows seem to vary over a much smaller distance than the examples I have seen out there. I.e. the shadow range is from 0 to 500 units, but the shadow is black 5 units away and almost non-existent 10 units away. The examples I am following are based on these two links:
VSM from Florian Boesch
VSM from Fabian Sanglard
In both of those examples, the authors are using spot light perspective projection to map the variance values to a floating point texture. In my engine, I have so far tried to use the same logic except I am using a directional light and orthographic projection. I tried both techniques and the result seems to always be the same for me. I'm not sure if its the because of me using an orthographic matrix to do projection - I suspect it might be. Here is a picture of the problem:
Notice how the box is only a few units away from the circle but the shadow is much darker even though the camera shadow is 0.1 to 500 units.
In the light shadow pass my code looks like this:
// viewMatrix is a uniform of the inverse world matrix of the camera
// vWorldPosition is the varying vec4 of the vertex position x world matrix
vec3 lightPos = (viewMatrix * vWorldPosition).xyz;
depth = clamp(length(lightPos) / 40.0, 0.0, 1.0);
float moment1 = depth;
float moment2 = depth * depth;
// Adjusting moments (this is sort of bias per pixel) using partial derivative
float dx = dFdx(depth);
float dy = dFdy(depth);
moment2 += pow(depth, 2.0) + 0.25 * (dx * dx + dy * dy) ;
gl_FragColor = vec4(moment1, moment2, 0.0, 1.0);
Then in my shadow pass:
// lightViewMatrix is the light camera's inverse world matrix
// vertWorldPosition is the attribute position x world matrix
vec3 lightViewPos = lightViewMatrix * vertWorldPosition;
float lightDepth2 = clamp(length(lightViewPos) / 40.0, 0.0, 1.0);
float illuminated = vsm( shadowMap[i], shadowCoord.xy, lightDepth2, shadowBias[i] );
shadowColor = shadowColor * illuminated
Firstly, should I be doing anything differently with Orthographic projection (Its probably not this, but I don't know what it might be as it happens using both techniques above :( )? If not, what might I be able to do to get a more even spread of the shadow?
Many thanks

Texture Warping Shader: Polar to Rectangular Coordinates

I am writing a 2D game using OpenGL and I have planned a shadow casting algorithm which needs a transformation of a texture from Polar Coordinates to Rectangular Coordinates. The desired effect is the following:
From this:
To this:
I know the formulas for converting coordinates between both Polar and Rectangular systems but I am having problems on writing the shader to achieve the desired effect.
My shader receives a texture as an input and should draw the warped texture to the screen. I planned the following (knowing that the fragment shader acts upon one fragment at a time):
Find the coordinates of the current fragment using gl_FragCoord.xy
Determine r and theta that correspond to the point (x, y).
Transform r and theta into texture_x and texture_y (which will be used to sample the texture)
Transfer the sampled pixel to the current fragment
My final result is the same input texture rotated 90 degrees clock-wise. I think that I'm missing something on step 3. I might be just getting the same x and y of the current fragment, because I'm simply using both the transform and inverse transform formulas.
How should I proceed to get the expected result?
Here is my shader:
#version 120
uniform sampler2D tex;
void main() {
vec2 fragCoords = gl_FragCoord.xy - vec2(128, 128); //shift the coordinates so that 0, 0 is in the center of the screen (the final texture is 256 * 256)
fragCoords /= vec2(256, 256);
float r = sqrt(pow(fragCoords.x, 2) + pow(fragCoords.y, 2));
float theta = atan(fragCoords.y, fragCoords.x);
if (fragCoords.y/fragCoords.x <= 0.5 && fragCoords.y/fragCoords.x >= -0.5) {
r *= 1/(256*sin(theta));
} else {
r *= 1/(0.5*256*cos(theta));
}
vec2 texCoords = vec2(r, theta);
vec4 texFrag = texture2D(tex, texCoords);
gl_FragColor = texFrag * vec4(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
}
In your shader you're first translating into polar coordinates
float r = sqrt(pow(fragCoords.x, 2) + pow(fragCoords.y, 2));
float theta = atan(fragCoords.y, fragCoords.x);
and then you't translating them back into cartesian
float tX = r * sin(theta);
float tY = r * cos(theta);
You want to stay in polar coordinates, so just plug r and theta into the texture coordinates
vec2 texCoords = vec2(r , theta);
vec4 texFrag = texture2D(tex, texCoords);
However by the looks of the images you pasted there's some renormalization step involved, so that (r, theta) will cover a rectangular area. If I'm not entirely mistaken, then r is scaled by the distance it takes a ray from the center-bottom to intersect with the rectangular area. If we assume theta=0 to be straight up, then for the range [-atan(0.5)…atan(0.5)] it's scaled by 1/(height*sin(theta)) and outside that range by 1/(0.5*width*cos(theta))