Question

uniform sampler2D sampler0;
uniform vec2 tc_offset[9];
void blur()
{
  vec4 sample[9];
  for(int i = 0; i < 9; ++i)
    sample[i] = texture2D(sampler0, gl_TexCoord[0].st + tc_offset[i]);

  gl_FragColor = (sample[0] + (2.0 * sample[1]) + sample[2] +
      (2.0 * sample[3]) + sample[4] + 2.0 * sample[5] +
      sample[6] + 2.0 * sample[7] + sample[8] ) / 13.0;
}

How does the sample[i] = texture2D(sample0, …) line work?

It seems like to blur an image, I have to first generate the image, yet here, I’m somehow trying to query the very iamge I’m generating. How does this work?

Answer 1

As you note, in order to make a blurred image, you first need to make an image, and then blur it. This shader does (just) the second step, taking an image that was generated previously and blurring it. There needs to be additional code elsewhere to generate the original non-blurred image.