Talk:Shader (realtime, logical)

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[edit] Merger proposal

These two articles are essentially duplicates. It's possible that another shader article on non-realtime shaders could be separate, but the primary article (Shader) just covers the same realtime shaders the secondary article does. I think the Shader article has the better title, but the Shader (realtime, logical) article is better written.

I'll probably let this go for a short while then just go forth with the merge if there aren't objections, which if I do it will largely consist of replacing the Shader article with the text from Shader (realtime, logical). (There are a couple bits I would want to keep.)

EvanED (talk) 21:38, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Strongly oppose. Over the past years, the two articles were essentially one. Many users complained that the logical approach was too involved, while trying to keep both on the same page confused most. To match their needs, the articles were split and a major overhaul initiated. At the end, most changes were rejected but this page survived up to now.
Also note, that shader is a term also used in the film industry with a very different meaning I am not aware of. The proposed change also addressed this request, but since nobody written anything about a "film shader", that page was also deleted after about two weeks(!).
Similarly, there was no consensus on whatever exactly the word "shader" means - for both GL and D3D a shader is a program, while for most IT people it's a piece of hardware (more properly "shader processor"). According to audience WP policy, both point of views are to be considered. Having two distinct articles makes this more evident and marks a clear distinction on used terminology and scope.
If the merger carries on, we'll essentially go back a few years and open the very same can of worms once again.
If you want to merge this with Shader, be prepared to face stiff opposition. It has already been done in the past, you probably need to look back about 1000 edits or so! The references in the Shader article actually survived those edits: note that they're not referenced anywhere, take this as an indicator of health of those two articles...
MaxDZ8 talk 08:36, 31 May 2008 (UTC)