   Fast GPU Vertex Noise in GLSL, With Normals
  I keep coming back to this one, and still haven't found a solution that works on my system.The problem is this:I'd like to create a sphere, radially distorted by perlin-type noise, with working normals for lighting, using GLSL. I've tried lots of different methods, but none seem to work.My latest attempt is based on the venerable Vertex Noise shader from NVIDIAThe GLSL vertex-shader code is a simplified version of an original NVIDIA HLSL example./******************************************************************************File:  vnoise.glslCopyright NVIDIA Corporation 2002TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED*AS IS* AND NVIDIA AND ITS SUPPLIERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESSOR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITYAND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  IN NO EVENT SHALL NVIDIA OR ITS SUPPLIERSBE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGESWHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS,BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS)ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF NVIDIA HASBEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.Comments:sgreen 5/02/02:This is based on Perlin's original code:    http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/doc/oscar.html    It combines the permutation and gradient tables into one array of    vec4's to conserve constant memory.    The table is duplicated twice to avoid modulo operations.jallen@nvidia.com: 10/12/03:    GLSL version of Cg vertex noise shaderNotes:    Should use separate tables for 1, 2 and 3D versions******************************************************************************/#define B  32 // table size#define B2 66 // B*2 + 2#define BR 0.03125 // 1 / B// this is the smoothstep function f(t) = 3t^2 - 2t^3, without the normalizationvec3 s_curve(vec3 t){    return t*t*( vec3(3.0, 3.0, 3.0) - vec3(2.0, 2.0, 2.0)*t);}vec2 s_curve(vec2 t){    return t*t*( vec2(3.0, 3.0) - vec2(2.0, 2.0)*t);}float s_curve(float t){    return t*t*(3.0-2.0*t);}// 3D versionfloat noise(vec3 v, vec4 pg[]){    v = v + vec3(10000.0, 10000.0, 10000.0);   // hack to avoid negative numbers    vec3 i = fract(v * BR) * float(B);   // index between 0 and B-1    vec3 f = fract(v);  // fractional position    // lookup in permutation table    vec2 p;    p.x = pg[ int(i[0])].w;    p.y = pg[ int(i[0]) + 1 ].w;    p = p + i[1];    vec4 b;    b.x = pg[ int(p[0]) ].w;    b.y = pg[ int(p[1]) ].w;    b.z = pg[ int(p[0]) + 1 ].w;    b.w = pg[ int(p[1]) + 1 ].w;    b = b + i[2];    // compute dot products between gradients and vectors    vec4 r;    r[0] = dot( pg[ int(b[0]) ].xyz, f );    r[1] = dot( pg[ int(b[1]) ].xyz, f - vec3(1.0, 0.0, 0.0) );    r[2] = dot( pg[ int(b[2]) ].xyz, f - vec3(0.0, 1.0, 0.0) );    r[3] = dot( pg[ int(b[3]) ].xyz, f - vec3(1.0, 1.0, 0.0) );    vec4 r1;    r1[0] = dot( pg[ int(b[0]) + 1 ].xyz, f - vec3(0.0, 0.0, 1.0) );    r1[1] = dot( pg[ int(b[1]) + 1 ].xyz, f - vec3(1.0, 0.0, 1.0) );    r1[2] = dot( pg[ int(b[2]) + 1 ].xyz, f - vec3(0.0, 1.0, 1.0) );    r1[3] = dot( pg[ int(b[3]) + 1 ].xyz, f - vec3(1.0, 1.0, 1.0) );    // interpolate    f = s_curve(f);    r = mix( r, r1, f[2] );    r = mix( r.xyyy, r.zwww, f[1] );    return mix( r.x, r.y, f[0] );}// 2D versionfloat noise(vec2 v, vec4 pg[]){    v = v + vec2(10000.0, 10000.0);    vec2 i = fract(v * BR) * float(B);   // index between 0 and B-1    vec2 f = fract(v);  // fractional position    // lookup in permutation table    vec2 p;    p[0] = pg[ int(i[0])   ].w;    p[1] = pg[ int(i[0]) + 1 ].w;    p = p + i[1];    // compute dot products between gradients and vectors    vec4 r;    r[0] = dot( pg[ int(p[0]) ].xy,   f);    r[1] = dot( pg[ int(p[1]) ].xy,   f - vec2(1.0, 0.0) );    r[2] = dot( pg[ int(p[0]) + 1 ].xy, f - vec2(0.0, 1.0) );    r[3] = dot( pg[ int(p[1]) + 1 ].xy, f - vec2(1.0, 1.0) );    // interpolate    f = s_curve(f);    r = mix( r.xyyy, r.zwww, f[1] );    return mix( r.x, r.y, f[0] );}// 1D versionfloat noise(float v, vec4 pg[]){    v = v + 10000.0;    float i = fract(v * BR) * float(B);   // index between 0 and B-1    float f = fract(v);  // fractional position    // compute dot products between gradients and vectors    vec2 r;    r[0] = pg[int(i)].x * f;    r[1] = pg[int(i) + 1].x * (f - 1.0);    // interpolate    f = s_curve(f);    return mix( r[0], r[1], f);}uniform float Displacement;uniform vec4 pg[B2];  // permutation/gradient tablevoid main(){    // Noise Tablevec4 pg[B2];nTab[0]=vec4(-0.569811,0.432591,-0.698699,0.0);nTab[1]=vec4(0.78118,0.163006,0.60265,1.0);nTab[2]=vec4(0.436394,-0.297978,0.848982,2.0);nTab[3]=vec4(0.843762,-0.185742,-0.503554,3.0);nTab[4]=vec4(0.663712,-0.68443,-0.301731,4.0);nTab[5]=vec4(0.616757,0.768825,0.168875,5.0);nTab[6]=vec4(0.457153,-0.884439,-0.093694,6.0);nTab[7]=vec4(-0.956955,0.110962,-0.268189,7.0);nTab[8]=vec4(0.115821,0.77523,0.620971,8.0);nTab[9]=vec4(-0.716028,-0.477247,-0.50945,9.0);nTab[10]=vec4(0.819593,-0.123834,0.559404,10.0);nTab[11]=vec4(-0.522782,-0.586534,0.618609,11.0);nTab[12]=vec4(-0.792328,-0.577495,-0.196765,12.0);nTab[13]=vec4(-0.674422,0.0572986,0.736119,13.0);nTab[14]=vec4(-0.224769,-0.764775,-0.60382,14.0);nTab[15]=vec4(0.492662,-0.71614,0.494396,15.0);nTab[16]=vec4(0.470993,-0.645816,0.600905,16.0);nTab[17]=vec4(-0.19049,0.321113,0.927685,17.0);nTab[18]=vec4(0.0122118,0.946426,-0.32269,18.0);nTab[19]=vec4(0.577419,0.408182,0.707089,19.0);nTab[20]=vec4(-0.0945428,0.341843,-0.934989,20.0);nTab[21]=vec4(0.788332,-0.60845,-0.0912217,21.0);nTab[22]=vec4(-0.346889,0.894997,-0.280445,22.0);nTab[23]=vec4(-0.165907,-0.649857,0.741728,23.0);nTab[24]=vec4(0.791885,0.124138,0.597919,24.0);nTab[25]=vec4(-0.625952,0.73148,0.270409,25.0);nTab[26]=vec4(-0.556306,0.580363,0.594729,26.0);nTab[27]=vec4(0.673523,0.719805,0.168069,27.0);nTab[28]=vec4(-0.420334,0.894265,0.153656,28.0);nTab[29]=vec4(-0.141622,-0.279389,0.949676,29.0);nTab[30]=vec4(-0.803343,0.458278,0.380291,30.0);nTab[31]=vec4(0.49355,-0.402088,0.77119,31.0);nTab[32]=vec4(-0.569811,0.432591,-0.698699,0.0);nTab[33]=vec4(0.78118,0.163006,0.60265,1.0);nTab[34]=vec4(0.436394,-0.297978,0.848982,2.0);nTab[35]=vec4(0.843762,-0.185742,-0.503554,3.0);nTab[36]=vec4(0.663712,-0.68443,-0.301731,4.0);nTab[37]=vec4(0.616757,0.768825,0.168875,5.0);nTab[38]=vec4(0.457153,-0.884439,-0.093694,6.0);nTab[39]=vec4(-0.956955,0.110962,-0.268189,7.0);nTab[40]=vec4(0.115821,0.77523,0.620971,8.0);nTab[41]=vec4(-0.716028,-0.477247,-0.50945,9.0); nTab[42]=vec4(0.819593,-0.123834,0.559404,10.0);nTab[43]=vec4(-0.522782,-0.586534,0.618609,11.0); nTab[44]=vec4(-0.792328,-0.577495,-0.196765,12.0);nTab[45]=vec4(-0.674422,0.0572986,0.736119,13.0); nTab[46]=vec4(-0.224769,-0.764775,-0.60382,14.0);nTab[47]=vec4(0.492662,-0.71614,0.494396,15.0); nTab[48]=vec4(0.470993,-0.645816,0.600905,16.0);nTab[49]=vec4(-0.19049,0.321113,0.927685,17.0); nTab[50]=vec4(0.0122118,0.946426,-0.32269,18.0);nTab[51]=vec4(0.577419,0.408182,0.707089,19.0); nTab[52]=vec4(-0.0945428,0.341843,-0.934989,20.0);nTab[53]=vec4(0.788332,-0.60845,-0.0912217,21.0); nTab[54]=vec4(-0.346889,0.894997,-0.280445,22.0);nTab[55]=vec4(-0.165907,-0.649857,0.741728,23.0); nTab[56]=vec4(0.791885,0.124138,0.597919,24.0);nTab[57]=vec4(-0.625952,0.73148,0.270409,25.0); nTab[58]=vec4(-0.556306,0.580363,0.594729,26.0);nTab[59]=vec4(0.673523,0.719805,0.168069,27.0);nTab[60]=vec4(-0.420334,0.894265,0.153656,28.0);nTab[61]=vec4(-0.141622,-0.279389,0.949676,29.0); nTab[62]=vec4(-0.803343,0.458278,0.380291,30.0);nTab[63]=vec4(0.49355,-0.402088,0.77119,31.0); nTab[64]=vec4(-0.569811,0.432591,-0.698699,0.0);nTab[65]=vec4(0.78118,0.163006,0.60265,1.0);  vec4 noisePos = gl_TextureMatrix[0] * gl_Vertex;    float i = (noise(noisePos.xyz, pg) + 1.0) * 0.5;    gl_FrontColor = vec4(i, i, i, 1.0);    // displacement along normal    vec4 position = gl_Vertex + (vec4(gl_Normal, 1.0) * i * Displacement);    position.w = 1.0;    gl_Position = gl_ModelViewProjectionMatrix * position;}I've modified the code so the noise-table is declared in the main loop of the Vertex program, rather than passed-in as a uniform.The idea is that each vertex's XYZ position is used to generate a noise value, which is then used to move each vertex of a spherical mesh along its normal to create a modulated form.Now, this seems to run quite fast, but profiling suggests it's falling-back to software rendering after a few seconds on my system (MacBook Pro, MacOS 10.5.7, ATI Radeon X1600 GPU with 256mb).So my first question is; is there any way of preventing this, and is there anything obvious in the code that would prevent GPU execution, that could be modified to allow it?The second question is: how would I generate normals for lighting the mesh?I've tried using the 'neighbour' technique to get tangent and bitangent points, but to do this, I have to start off with a flat grid of vertices, and wrap it around into a sphere using the standard parametric sphere formula, then apply the noise to the sphere point. Then I have to do the whole thing twice more with tiny offsets on the U and V axes to get the tangent/bitangent. Whenever I try to implement this method I get a crash, even though I am able to do both discrete tasks on their own (ie modulate a sphere with perlin noise via the above method, and create a spherical mesh from a flat plane mesh).Is there some way I could get usable normals without having to start with a flat mesh, eliminating the sphere function?I had vague thoughts about somehow exploiting the fact that the normal for a sphere is just the normalized XYZ coordinates of each vertex in object-space, but I don't know how.I find it really annoying that several people have been able to get this working using DirectX and HLSL (and working fast, too, on the GPU), and I just don't seem to be able to get it to work in GLSL.I'm not invested in this particular Perlin implementation; I'd be perfectly happy with any other means of doing this kind of thinghttp://www.vimeo.com/5074567but with normals, and lighting, at a decent framerate, would be great!Incidentally, I'd also be happy with a 2D, rather than 3D noise effect, as I like the symmetry of the 2D method (as in the video clip), though the option also of 3D noise would be cool.Anyone any ideas?Thanks a lot guys,a|xhttp://machinesdontcare.wordpress.com   
  Don't know the nVidia examples, maybe someone else can help you with that. But maybe here is something else to try. I never tried it, but maybe you can use textures in your vertex shader (SM 3 required I think)? Ifso, make a skin texture that can be wrapped around the sphere (or whatever shape), just like a normal texture and by giving the proper texture coordinates to the spere vertices.The texture itself could be a RGBA texture where:rgb = normal   (like normalMapping, normal = 2 x pixel.rgb -1)a   = noise offset height (0=vertex inwards, 1=vertex outwards)If there wasn't noise, the alpha value would be 0.5 everywhere, and the rgb(normal) is equal to the normal you would normally give to the sphere vertex. But around each 'correct' pixel, there is a region of distorted pixels with differing height values and distorted normals that match with the offset. Now you can generate noise on the sphere just by applying a (small) random offset to the vertex coordinates so it will pick a neighbour pixel. The random values can be given by the CPU, or use another noise texture to grab the texcoord.xy offset. In the vertex shader replace the original normal with the distorted normal from the texture. Either you draw absolute normals on that texture, or in tangent space. In that case you have to convert the distorted normal to absolute or tangent space first before using with the lighting. The vertex position would be<vertex shader>float4 distort = tex2D( noiseTexture, vertex.texcoord + randomOffset );// Normalout.normal = 2 * distort.rgb -1; // maybe also convert to tangent or world space// Positionfloat3 worldPosition = sphereCenter + in.normal * radius * distort.a;out.pos = mul( MVP, worldPosition );That shader seems a whole lot easier (and faster) than the stuff above. Although I don't know if it gives you the desired kind of noise. This is just random noise. But it demonstrates howto make use of textures inside a vertex shader. You can modify that noiseTexture and/or the random offset parameters to get the desired effect. The difficult part is not the shader, but creating the texture.Good luck!Rick   ;  That's a really interesting approach; thanks for the suggestion spek.Unfortunately, I'm not able to use Vertex-Shader texture lookup really. It works in my system, but always drops back to the CPU, because the Mac drivers for my card don't support it (or the card itself doesn't). I'm pretty sure this is the case with OS X drivers for all GPUs currently available for the Mac.Actually, if I could use VTF, I could dump the noise table in the NVIDIA shader into a texture and lookup noise values from there. I have a feeling it may be the large array of vec4s that is causing the crash. Hmm..The other thing is, I have no idea how I'd go about creating the texture map, I'm ashamed to say. Also, unfortunately, I can't get a tangent vector in the VS. I should put my cards on the table here, really. I'm using a modular-type application for realtime 3D and video graphics called Quartz Composer- it's made by Apple, and is a little like a simpler version of Max/Jitter. It's really cool, and fast, and allows the use of GLSL shaders, which is a great feature. The downside is, it supplies its own OpenGL context, and doesn't allow you to poke around too far beneath the surface. so you can't do stuff like pass vertex attributes in to a shader, which I think it necessary to get Object-Space normals into Eye Space for lighting. Or maybe I'm wrong.The idea is to have a distortion that's completely dynamic, so I can scale and offset the noise at will, so I want the possibility of it going from a smooth, wave-like effect to a much more spiky mesh, so maybe this would mean recalculating the displacement/normal texture on-the-fly...Intriguing though. I will give it some though: Maybe there is a way to get VTF working...Thanks a lot,a|x   ;  Hiya!Well, I took up your suggestion to try using VTF for the noise, but for the moment, I'm just using it to lookup permutation values from a pre-calculated permutation texture, so the setup is basically similar to my original attempt using the NVIDIA vBomb shader, but simplified a little because of the 2D texture lookup replacing the large array.I've got it kind-of working now, with the code below. However, there seems to be a problem with my normal-estimation.Here's the code:Vertex Shader://////////////////////////  2D Perlin Noise   //////////////////////////uniform sampler2D permTexture;uniform vec2 nScale;uniform vec2 nOffset;uniform float dAmt;/*To create offsets of one texel and one half texel in thetexture lookup, we need to know the texture image size.*/const float permTexUnit = 1.0 / 256.0;const float permTexUnitHalf = 0.5 / 256.0;float fade(in float t) {return t*t*t*(t*(t*6.0-15.0)+10.0);}float pnoise2(in vec2 P){// Integer part, scaled and offset for texture lookupvec2 Pi = permTexUnit*floor(P)+permTexUnitHalf;// Fractional part for interpolationvec2 Pf = fract(P);// Noise contribution from lower left cornervec2 grad00 = texture2D(permTexture, Pi).rg * 4.0 - 1.0;float n00 = dot(grad00, Pf);// Noise contribution from lower right cornervec2 grad10 = texture2D(permTexture, Pi + vec2(permTexUnit, 0.0)).rg * 4.0 - 1.0;float n10 = dot(grad10, Pf - vec2(1.0, 0.0));// Noise contribution from upper left cornervec2 grad01 = texture2D(permTexture, Pi + vec2(0.0, permTexUnit)).rg * 4.0 - 1.0;float n01 = dot(grad01, Pf - vec2(0.0, 1.0));// Noise contribution from upper right cornervec2 grad11 = texture2D(permTexture, Pi + vec2(permTexUnit, permTexUnit)).rg * 4.0 - 1.0;float n11 = dot(grad11, Pf - vec2(1.0, 1.0));// Blend contributions along xvec2 n_x = mix(vec2(n00, n01), vec2(n10, n11), fade(Pf.x));// Blend contributions along yfloat n_xy = mix(n_x.x, n_x.y, fade(Pf.y));// We're done, return the final noise value.return n_xy;}////////////////////////  Sphere Function ////////////////////////uniform float sRadius;const float PI = 3.14159265359;const float TWOPI = 6.28318530718;vec3 sphere(in vec2 uv) {uv[0] *= PI;uv[1] *= TWOPI;vec3 sPoint;sPoint.x = cos(uv[0]) * cos(uv[1]);sPoint.y = sin(uv[0]) * cos(uv[1]);sPoint.z = sin(uv[1]);return sPoint;}/////////////////////////////////////// Calculate Noise-Modulated Point ///////////////////////////////////////vec3 vNoisePoint(in vec2 p) {vec3 pSphere = sphere(p.xy);// Create spherevec2 nVal = pSphere.xy * nScale + nOffset;// Values for noisefloat noise = pnoise2(nVal);// Noise valuenoise = 0.5 * noise + 0.5;// Scale and offset to 0 > 1 rangevec3 sNorm = normalize(pSphere);// Fake normal// Return XYZ coordinates of point moved along fake sphere normalreturn (pSphere + (sNorm * noise * dAmt)) * sRadius;}///////////////////////// Lighting & Normal /////////////////////////varying vec3 lightVec, view, normal;const vec2 gridX = vec2(0.001,0.0);const vec2 gridY = vec2(0.0,0.001);void velvetVS(in vec3 p, in vec3 np) {// Calculate normal by 'neighbour' techniquevec3 tangent = vNoisePoint(p.xy + gridX) - np;vec3 bitangent = vNoisePoint(p.xy + gridY) - np;normal = normalize(cross(tangent, bitangent));normal = gl_NormalMatrix * normal;normal = (normal.z < 0.0) ? -normal : normal;// Other varying to FSvec3 lPos = gl_LightSource[0].position.xyz;vec4 po = vec4(p,1.0);vec3 pw = (gl_ModelViewMatrix * po).xyz;lightVec = normalize(lPos - pw);vec3 eyePos = vec3(0.0,0.0,1.0);view = normalize(eyePos - pw);}/////////////////////   Main Loop   /////////////////////void main(){vec4 vert = gl_Vertex;// Noise vertexvec4 nVert = vec4(vNoisePoint(vert.xy),1.0);velvetVS(vert.xyz, nVert.xyz);// Transform vertex by modelview and projection matricesgl_Position = gl_ModelViewProjectionMatrix * nVert;// Forward texture coordinates after applying texture matrixgl_TexCoord[0] = gl_TextureMatrix[0] * gl_MultiTexCoord0;}Fragment Shader:uniform vec4 lDiffColor;// Diffuse Color (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1.0)uniform vec4 lSpecColor;// Specular Color (0.7, 0.7, 0.75, 1.0)uniform vec4 lSubColor;// Under-Color (0.2, 0.2, 1.0, 1.0)uniform float lRollOff;// Edge Rolloff 0.0 > 1.0varying vec3 lightVec, view, normal;vec4 velvetFS() {vec3 Ln = normalize(lightVec);vec3 Nn = normalize(normal);vec3 Vn = normalize(view);vec3 Hn = normalize(Vn + Ln);float ldn = dot(Ln,Nn);float diffComp = max(0.0,ldn);vec3 diffContrib = vec3(diffComp * lDiffColor);float subLamb = smoothstep(-lRollOff,1.0,ldn) - smoothstep(0.0,1.0,ldn);subLamb = max(0.0,subLamb);vec3 subContrib = vec3(subLamb * lSubColor);float vdn = 1.0-dot(Vn,Nn);vec4 vecColor = vec4(vec3(vdn),1.0);vec4 DiffuseContrib = vec4((subContrib+diffContrib).xyz,1.0);vec4 SpecularContrib = vec4((vecColor*lSpecColor).xyz,1.0);return DiffuseContrib + SpecularContrib;}/////////////////////   Main Loop   /////////////////////void main(){//gl_FragColor = velvetFS();}</font>And here's a screenshot of the result:As you can see, there are discontinuities in the normals around the mesh. Is there any way of fixing this while still using the current normal-estimation technique? Alternatively, is there a better way of calculating normals, maybe working-out the noise derivatives directly (no idea how I'd go about this, sadly). Also, would it be possible to somehow cut out the sphere function, and use a sphere primitive as a base for the noise, and still somehow calculate working normals? I guess this would make the whole thing more efficient. Frustratingly, I've seen normals calculated using this technique and a similar vertex noise shader in HLSL, and it seems to work flawlessly. What am I doing wrong?I'm a relative newbie to shader-coding, so any advice on how to proceed very gratefully accepted. Thanks again,a|xhttp://machinesdontcare.wordpress.com[Edited by - toneburst on June 21, 2009 2:22:03 AM];  http://staffwww.itn.liu.se/~stegu/simplexnoise/   ;  Hi zedz,thanks very much for getting back to me.Quote:Original post by zedzhttp://staffwww.itn.liu.se/~stegu/simplexnoise/That'a exactly where I got the Perlin implementation from, in fact. I chose the reference Perlin function because the 2D version is apparently faster than 2D Simplex Noise.I don't think it's the perlin noise that is at fault here, however. If I take noise out of the shader completely, so I'm just creating a spherical mesh from a flat grid using the parametric sphere function, and attempt to estimate normals in the same way, I get the same problem.Here's a visualisation of the normals, after transformation by the gl_NormalMatrix:As you can see, you can clearly see the seam here too, and also a weird error at the top of the mesh.I think I've also eliminated the lighting equation itself from my enquiries, too. If I use a standard sphere primitive, and it's normals, and don't do any vertex-displacement, I don't get the problem.I'm beginning to suspect rounding-errors in the builtin GLSL sin() and cos() functions may be to blame. Does this sound likely? If so, is there any way of getting around the problem, or, as I said in my last post, calculating normals in some other way, and, if possible, getting rid of the need for the sphere function and displacing a spherical mesh directly while still getting useable normals?Cheers,a|x[Edited by - toneburst on June 21, 2009 3:34:13 AM];  OK, I've finally got it semi-working, though this time just with a basic phong directional lighting model.Here's the code:/// VERTEX SHADER/*2D Perlin-Noise in the vertex shader, based originally onvBomb.fx HLSL vertex noise shader, from the NVIDIA Shader Library.http://developer.download.nvidia.com/shaderlibrary/webpages/shader_library.html#vbombOriginal Perlin function substituted for Stefan Gustavson'stexture-lookup-based Perlin implementation.Quartz Composer setuptoneburst 2009http://machinesdontcare.wordpress.com*///////////////////////////  2D Perlin Noise   ///////////////////////////*2D Perlin-Noise from example by Stefan Gustavson, found athttp://staffwww.itn.liu.se/~stegu/simplexnoise/*/uniform sampler2D permTexture;// Permutation textureconst float permTexUnit = 1.0/256.0;// Perm texture texel-sizeconst float permTexUnitHalf = 0.5/256.0;// Half perm texture texel-sizefloat fade(in float t) {return t*t*t*(t*(t*6.0-15.0)+10.0);}float pnoise2D(in vec2 p){// Integer part, scaled and offset for texture lookupvec2 pi = permTexUnit*floor(p) + permTexUnitHalf;// Fractional part for interpolationvec2 pf = fract(p);// Noise contribution from lower left cornervec2 grad00 = texture2D(permTexture, pi).rg * 4.0 - 1.0;float n00 = dot(grad00, pf);// Noise contribution from lower right cornervec2 grad10 = texture2D(permTexture, pi + vec2(permTexUnit, 0.0)).rg * 4.0 - 1.0;float n10 = dot(grad10, pf - vec2(1.0, 0.0));// Noise contribution from upper left cornervec2 grad01 = texture2D(permTexture, pi + vec2(0.0, permTexUnit)).rg * 4.0 - 1.0;float n01 = dot(grad01, pf - vec2(0.0, 1.0));// Noise contribution from upper right cornervec2 grad11 = texture2D(permTexture, pi + vec2(permTexUnit, permTexUnit)).rg * 4.0 - 1.0;float n11 = dot(grad11, pf - vec2(1.0, 1.0));// Blend contributions along xvec2 n_x = mix(vec2(n00, n01), vec2(n10, n11), fade(pf.x));// Blend contributions along yfloat n_xy = mix(n_x.x, n_x.y, fade(pf.y));// We're done, return the final noise value.return n_xy;}/////////////////////// Sphere Function ///////////////////////const float PI = 3.14159265;const float TWOPI = 6.28318531;uniform float BaseRadius;vec4 sphere(in float u, in float v) {u *= PI;v *= TWOPI;vec4 pSphere;pSphere.x = BaseRadius * cos(v) * sin(u);pSphere.y = BaseRadius * sin(v) * sin(u);pSphere.z = BaseRadius * cos(u);pSphere.w = 1.0;return pSphere;}///////////////////////////// Apply 2D Perlin Noise /////////////////////////////uniform vec3 NoiseScale;// Noise scale, 0.01 > 8uniform float Sharpness;// Displacement 'sharpness', 0.1 > 5uniform float Displacement;// Displcement amount, 0 > 2uniform float Speed;// Displacement rate, 0.01 > 1uniform float Timer;// Feed incrementing value, infinitevec4 perlinSphere(in float u, in float v) {vec4 sPoint = sphere(u, v);// The rest of this function is mainly from vBomb shader from NVIDIA Shader Libraryvec4 noisePos = vec4(NoiseScale.xyz,1.0) * (sPoint + (Speed * Timer));float noise = (pnoise2D(noisePos.xy) + 1.0) * 0.5;;float ni = pow(abs(noise),Sharpness) - 0.25;vec4 nn = vec4(normalize(sPoint.xyz),0.0);return (sPoint - (nn * (ni-0.5) * Displacement));}////////////////////////////////// Calculate Position, Normal //////////////////////////////////const float grid = 0.01;// Grid offset for normal-estimationvarying vec3 norm;// Normalvec4 posNorm(in float u, in float v) {// Vertex positionvec4 vPosition = perlinSphere(u, v);// Estimate normal by 'neighbour' technique// with thanks to tonfilmvec3 tangent = (perlinSphere(u + grid, v) - vPosition).xyz;vec3 bitangent = (perlinSphere(u, v + grid) - vPosition).xyz;norm = gl_NormalMatrix * normalize(cross(tangent, bitangent));// Return vertex positionreturn vPosition;}//////////////////////////// Phong Directional VS ////////////////////////////// -- Lighting varyings (to Fragment Shader)varying vec3 lightDir0, halfVector0;varying vec4 diffuse0, ambient;void phongDir_VS() {// Extract values from gl light parameters// and set varyings for Fragment ShaderlightDir0 = normalize(vec3(gl_LightSource[0].position));halfVector0 = normalize(gl_LightSource[0].halfVector.xyz);diffuse0 = gl_FrontMaterial.diffuse * gl_LightSource[0].diffuse;ambient =  gl_FrontMaterial.ambient * gl_LightSource[0].ambient;ambient += gl_LightModel.ambient * gl_FrontMaterial.ambient;}///////////////// Main Loop /////////////////uniform vec2 PreScale, PreTranslate;// Mesh pre-transformvoid main(){vec2 uv = gl_Vertex.xy;// Offset XY mesh coords to 0 > 1 rangeuv += 0.5;// Pre-scale and transform meshuv *= PreScale;uv += PreTranslate;// Calculate new vertex position and normalvec4 spherePos = posNorm(uv[0], uv[1]);// Calculate lighting varyings to be passed to fragment shaderphongDir_VS();// Transform new vertex position by modelview and projection matricesgl_Position = gl_ModelViewProjectionMatrix * spherePos;// Forward current texture coordinates after applying texture matrixgl_TexCoord[0] = gl_TextureMatrix[0] * gl_MultiTexCoord0;}/// FRAGMENT SHADER/*Generic Fragment Shaderwith Phong Directional lighting*///////////////////////////// Phong Directional FS ////////////////////////////// -- Lighting varyings (from Vertex Shader)varying vec3 norm, lightDir0, halfVector0;varying vec4 diffuse0, ambient;vec4 phongDir_FS(){vec3 halfV;float NdotL, NdotHV;// The ambient term will always be presentvec4 color = ambient;// compute the dot product between normal and ldirNdotL = max(dot(norm, lightDir0),0.0);if (NdotL > 0.0) {color += diffuse0 * NdotL;halfV = normalize(halfVector0);NdotHV = max(dot(norm, halfV), 0.0);color +=gl_FrontMaterial.specular * gl_LightSource[0].specular * pow(NdotHV, gl_FrontMaterial.shininess);}return color;}///////////////// Main Loop /////////////////void main(){// Call lighting function and return resultgl_FragColor = phongDir_FS();}I also did a 3D noise version, which also seems to work OK.I'd still love to know if it's possible to eliminate the need to create a spherical mesh from a flat grid, and still somehow calculate the normals. I imagine this would speed things up a little.Anyone any ideas?a|xhttp://machinesdontcare.wordpress.com   