Name for code I'm writing to render terrain textures.
My Coined Phrase "Shaderless Shader" is simple a name to describe the "Code" I'm making ... e.g. "My Shaderless Shader Code" which isn't a revolutionary breakthrough ... hardly... (but sounds cool). I'm just calling it that because most of the cool Shaders use a combination of layering textures... blending... (often using ideas that fall under the coined Phrase "Texture Splatting").
I'm just using the same KIND of logic - Terrain Slope, Height, Alpha Maps, etc... to put together a nice terrain texture.
My PC is slow, and Shaders WHALLOP the FPS... They look great but... WALLOP. I'd rather take a stab at trying to accomplish similiar things without that particular frame Rate Robbing - though I LOVE the look of them Shaders Boy!
I'm making headway though - and considering I just got the hang of dynamically making a mesh, and object, limbs, and got culling working, this is a valuable exercise success or fail - as I'm constantly running into new things to learn, new math problems to ask about, learn from, try to implement... and eventually understand etc....
One Nice thing about this "non-realtime" approach is that I am not limited by the number of textures I can use at onetime, nor am I required to have a ton of idividual shaders running, configured for individual pieces of terrain.
So far, the "Shaderless Shader" can do hundreds of textures, each with thier own 3d SPACE "ranges" or "Regions" Rules for Altitude, angles, its pretty good that way. I can have a COMPLEX rocky area, dirt areas... each made up of tons of textures... its like those CG movie places - there is "basic drawing... getting it to look ok... then you do the REAL RENDER... Better go get some coffee... but when it finishes - it looks cool!
So.. Yeah... I'm Writing a Shaderless Shader!
