Filter vs Shader...

plasmalasgun

Could someone discuss the nitty gritty low level difference between (custom)Filters and Shaders... Can you apply a filter render stuff and then disable it?

amnon

A filter is just a Processing convenience method to easily apply a fragment shader to the existing already drawn canvas. Instead, a shader applies to all the upcoming geometry that will be drawn. In Processing, there are shaders of different types, see the PShader tutorial on the main page. So Shaders are the real, complex thing, while filters are it's Processing-only, convenience little brother. The used shader can be reset to the default used the resetShader() call. Since a filter only applies to the already drawn canvas, it doesn't have to be disabled, it is just called as a post-processing effect like all the other default filters. except that it is in this case based on a fragment shader. See: Examples > Topics > Shaders > EdgeDetect

clankill3r

filters are slow!