This may sound as a dumb question, but could someone please explain to me fully what a shader is? How it is made (not the coding), and what's it's purpose. Please note, I already understand it can do those really cool effects, but I have no idea, how it works. I need a detailed definition for a shader if anyone can provide me with one.
When I was looking into what "shader" actually was defined as.. I kept running into basically this:
A procedure that tells the renderer the color(shading) and lighting of a surface. The term is from Pixar Renderman and I believe it is essentially Rendermans "word" for <Material>.
actually the shader isnt really the material.. it "defines" how the material reacts/interacts with the surrounding environment (reflections, emmisives, color shadows... etc)
I'm not sure how accurate MY definition is. but i BELIEVE that is what defines a shader
