Here’s the geom shader from Paul’s example if it is any help. It does do a great job of making thick lines. I did try making a separate mesh for each set of connected lines but that ended up being thousands of vbo meshes and things slowed to a crawl.
#version 150
uniform float THICKNESS; // the thickness of the line in pixels
uniform float MITER_LIMIT; // 1.0: always miter, -1.0: never miter, 0.75: default
uniform vec2 resolution; // the size of the viewport in pixels
layout( lines_adjacency ) in;
layout( triangle_strip, max_vertices = 7 ) out;
in VertexData{
vec3 mColor;
} VertexIn[4];
out VertexData{
vec2 mTexCoord;
vec3 mColor;
} VertexOut;
vec2 toScreenSpace( vec4 vertex )
{
return vec2( vertex.xy / vertex.w ) * resolution;
}
void main( void )
{
// get the four vertices passed to the shader:
vec2 p0 = toScreenSpace( gl_in[0].gl_Position ); // start of previous segment
vec2 p1 = toScreenSpace( gl_in[1].gl_Position ); // end of previous segment, start of current segment
vec2 p2 = toScreenSpace( gl_in[2].gl_Position ); // end of current segment, start of next segment
vec2 p3 = toScreenSpace( gl_in[3].gl_Position ); // end of next segment
// perform naive culling
vec2 area = resolution * 1.2;
if( p1.x < -area.x || p1.x > area.x ) return;
if( p1.y < -area.y || p1.y > area.y ) return;
if( p2.x < -area.x || p2.x > area.x ) return;
if( p2.y < -area.y || p2.y > area.y ) return;
// determine the direction of each of the 3 segments (previous, current, next)
vec2 v0 = normalize( p1 - p0 );
vec2 v1 = normalize( p2 - p1 );
vec2 v2 = normalize( p3 - p2 );
// determine the normal of each of the 3 segments (previous, current, next)
vec2 n0 = vec2( -v0.y, v0.x );
vec2 n1 = vec2( -v1.y, v1.x );
vec2 n2 = vec2( -v2.y, v2.x );
// determine miter lines by averaging the normals of the 2 segments
vec2 miter_a = normalize( n0 + n1 ); // miter at start of current segment
vec2 miter_b = normalize( n1 + n2 ); // miter at end of current segment
// determine the length of the miter by projecting it onto normal and then inverse it
float length_a = THICKNESS / dot( miter_a, n1 );
float length_b = THICKNESS / dot( miter_b, n1 );
// prevent excessively long miters at sharp corners
if( dot( v0, v1 ) < -MITER_LIMIT ) {
miter_a = n1;
length_a = THICKNESS;
// close the gap
if( dot( v0, n1 ) > 0 ) {
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 0 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[1].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( ( p1 + THICKNESS * n0 ) / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 0 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[1].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( ( p1 + THICKNESS * n1 ) / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 0.5 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[1].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( p1 / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
EndPrimitive();
}
else {
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 1 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[1].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( ( p1 - THICKNESS * n1 ) / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 1 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[1].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( ( p1 - THICKNESS * n0 ) / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 0.5 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[1].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( p1 / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
EndPrimitive();
}
}
if( dot( v1, v2 ) < -MITER_LIMIT ) {
miter_b = n1;
length_b = THICKNESS;
}
// generate the triangle strip
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 0 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[1].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( ( p1 + length_a * miter_a ) / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 1 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[1].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( ( p1 - length_a * miter_a ) / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 0 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[2].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( ( p2 + length_b * miter_b ) / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
VertexOut.mTexCoord = vec2( 0, 1 );
VertexOut.mColor = VertexIn[2].mColor;
gl_Position = vec4( ( p2 - length_b * miter_b ) / resolution, 0.0, 1.0 );
EmitVertex();
EndPrimitive();
}