16.2. Threshold

An improvement to the "on/off" animation is to have the application pass the shader one or more values that are tested against one or more threshold values within the shader. Using one control value and two threshold values, you could write a shader with three behaviors: one for when the control value is less than the first threshold value, one for when the control value is between the two threshold values, and one for when the control value is greater than the second threshold value.

In the case just described, you actually may have a transition period when the neon light is warming up to full brightness or dissipating to its off condition. This type of transition helps to "soften" the change between two states so that the transition appears more natural. The smoothstep function is handy for calculating such a transition.