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# docs.GL

GLSL 4
GLSL ES 3

# refract

## Name

refract — calculate the refraction direction for an incident vector

## Declaration

`genType refract(` | genType I,
| genType N,
| float eta`)`;

`genDType refract(` | genDType I,
| genDType N,
| float eta`)`;

## Parameters

`I`

  Specifies the incident vector.

`N`

  Specifies the normal vector.

`eta`

  Specifies the ratio of indices of refraction.

## Description

For a given incident vector `I`, surface normal `N` and ratio of indices of refraction, `eta`, `refract` returns the refraction vector, `R`.

`R` is calculated as:

        k = 1.0 - eta * eta * (1.0 - dot(N, I) * dot(N, I));
        if (k < 0.0)
            R = genType(0.0);       // or genDType(0.0)
        else
            R = eta * I - (eta * dot(N, I) + sqrt(k)) * N;

The input parameters `I` and `N` should be normalized in order to achieve the desired result.

## Version Support

| OpenGL Shading Language Version
--- | ---
Function Name | 1.10 | 1.20 | 1.30 | 1.40 | 1.50 | 3.30 | 4.00 | 4.10 | 4.20 | 4.30 | 4.40 | 4.50
refract (genType) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
refract (genDType) | - | - | - | - | - | - | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔

## See Also

dot, reflect

## Copyright

Copyright © 2011-2014 Khronos Group. This material may be distributed subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v 1.0, 8 June 1999. https://opencontent.org/openpub/.

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