Simulating Windows with Refraction

Some months ago I was approached by the Berlin-based Window-Manufacturing-Company “ISOGON” to help them program an app that let’s you configure orders for new windows (In case you want to build a house or modernize your current windows to waist less energy). Get it for free on the app-store.

So, for people mostly interested in 3D-Gems, I did some shader-programming in this app.

We were able to scan our structured windows so I could get some 3D-Meshes of those. Then I had a look into OpenGL ES 2.0 Shader-Programming and the “refract(vec3, vec3, float)” function to calculate the refraction of the scanned surface.

Later I just had to set the iPhone’s Camera Video Images as the current background texture and the result looks like this:

$refracted$

And the corresponding undistorted picture (featuring my beautiful Hagström Super Swede )

If you guys are interested in the technical details I highly recommend PowerVR’s OpenGL programming SDK. They have some tutorials on how to program Shaders, and a C++-framework to import Blender-exports into your iOS project that were really helpful to me.

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This entry was posted on September 2, 2011 at 11:25 am and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Simulating Windows with Refraction”

Peter Says:
October 26, 2011 at 12:33 am

Hi, I have been googling everywhere for a good OpenGL refract example. Would you mind sharing some code example?

Thanks
Peter

Reply
- bersaelor Says:
  October 27, 2011 at 9:08 am
  
  Hey there,
  
  there’s the PowerVR SDK: http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/sdk/KhronosOpenGLES2xSGX.asp
  they have a lovely example on Refraction, its the third last in the list. They have the Shaders inside there too.
  
  Reply

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