Texturing a particle system using point sprites and shaders

In this recipe, we will learn how to apply a texture to all our particles using OpenGL point sprites and a GLSL Shader.

This method is optimized and allows for a large number of particles to be drawn at fast frame rates.

Getting ready

We will be using the particle system developed in the recipe Creating a particle system in 2D from Chapter 5, Building Particle Systems. So we will need to add the following files to your project:

• Particle.h

• ParticleSystem.h

We will also be loading an image to use as texture. The image's size must be a power of two, such as 256 x 256 or 512 x 512. Place the image inside the assets folder and name it particle.png.

How to do it...

We will create a GLSL shader and then enable OpenGL point sprites to draw textured particles.

1. Let's begin by creating the GLSL Shader. Create the following files:

   • shader.frag

   • shader.vert

   Add them to the assets folder.

2. Open the file shader.frag in your IDE of choice and declare a uniform...