How to define constant array in GLSL (OpenGL ES 2.0)?

Geri Borbás picture Geri Borbás · May 6, 2012 · Viewed 35.4k times · Source

I just want to store an array of weights that needs to every fragment calculation.

This:

float weights[5] = float[5](3.4, 4.2, 5.0, 5.2, 1.1);

Just throws this:

ERROR: 0:30: ']' : syntax error syntax error
ERROR: 0:30: ';' : syntax error syntax error

Answer

Stefan Hanke picture Stefan Hanke · May 6, 2012

From the OpenGL ES SL 1.0 spec, paragraph 4.1.9 Arrays (p. 24):

There is no mechanism for initializing arrays at declaration time from within a shader.

Note that this has been intentionally left out. According to this post, the OpenGL ES SL version for OpenGL ES 2 is based on OpenGL SL 1.2. The same paragraph (p. 20) contains:

Arrays can have initializers formed from array constructors:

      float a[5] = float[5](3.4, 4.2, 5.0, 5.2, 1.1);
      float a[5] = float[](3.4, 4.2, 5.0, 5.2, 1.1);  // same thing