21.6. Summary

Shading languages have been around for some time now. The first shading languages were non-real-time languages aimed at producing photorealistic imagery. Graphics hardware capable of supporting an interactive shading language showed up in research labs in the 1990s, and today, this type of programmable graphics hardware is available at consumer price points. This has led to the development of several commercially available shading languages, notably, ISL, the OpenGL Shading Language, HLSL, and Cg.

In the spectrum of programming languages, the last three are extremely similar. Each was designed to provide functionality available in RenderMan by the use of C/C++ as the basis for the language syntax. The result is that all three languages are similar in terms of syntax and capability. The single biggest technical difference is that HLSL and Cg sit on top of standard interfaces such as DirectX and OpenGL and translate high-level source code to assembly outside those APIs. The OpenGL Shading Language, on the other hand, translates high-level source code to machine code within the OpenGL driver.

As far as nontechnical differences, the HLSL and CG specifications are controlled by Microsoft and NVIDIA, respectively. The OpenGL Shading Language is controlled by the OpenGL ARB, a standards body made up of representatives from a variety of graphics hardware and computer manufacturers. HLSL is designed for use in Microsoft's DirectX environment, and the OpenGL Shading Language is designed for use with OpenGL in a variety of operating environments. Cg is designed to be used in either DirectX or OpenGL environments.