# lettier/3d-game-shaders-for-beginners

🎮 A step-by-step guide to implementing SSAO, depth of field, lighting, normal mapping, and more for your 3D game.

Repository: https://github.com/lettier/3d-game-shaders-for-beginners
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/3d-game-shaders-for-beginners
Homepage: https://lettier.github.io/3d-game-shaders-for-beginners/index.html
Language: C++
License Family: other
Topics: shaders, 3d, graphics, panda3d, game-development, glsl, glsl-shaders, graphics-programming, 3d-graphics, hlsl, unity, godot, gamedev, glsl-shader, shader, unity3d, indiedev, opengl, webgl, vulkan
Last push: 2023-06-25T21:58:57+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2670, "days_push": 1165, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 19855, forks 1479 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:29.324606+00:00)

## What it is
A step-by-step tutorial collection teaching 3D game shader techniques like SSAO, depth of field, lighting, and normal mapping using GLSL and the Panda3D engine. It includes a runnable C++ demo whose source files are licensed, while the guide itself is educational material.

## Use cases
- learn how to implement SSAO in a 3d game
- add depth of field post-processing to my game
- understand normal mapping and lighting shaders
- implement screen space reflections in GLSL
- learn shader techniques portable to Unity or Godot
- add bloom and blur effects to a 3d renderer

## When to choose
- you want to learn real-time graphics shader techniques from scratch
- you need explained, portable GLSL examples for common game rendering effects
- you use Panda3D or want a reference demo to build against

## When to avoid
- you need a production-ready rendering engine or drop-in shader library
- you want a maintained framework with releases and support
- you need non-code content (text/images) under an open license

## Facets
- artifact type: learning-resource
- maturity: stable
- function: graphics, game-engine, simulation
- domain: graphics, tutorials
- platform: cross-platform, cpp
- tags: shaders, glsl, panda3d, ssao, post-processing, lighting, normal-mapping, opengl, unity, godot, game-development, gpu

## Member repositories
- lettier/3d-game-shaders-for-beginners (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:29.324606+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:59:25.143056+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/lettier/3d-game-shaders-for-beginners (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:29.324606+00:00, sha 0d2121211840)
  - homepage: https://lettier.github.io/3d-game-shaders-for-beginners/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T07:58:00.352855+00:00, sha c982f34e89a0)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.