quantize_with_dither.glsl

// Original idea by Mikkel Gjoel (https://computergraphics.stackexchange.com/a/5952/10515),
// simplified to one readable function.

// Demo at https://www.shadertoy.com/view/Wts3zH.

// Dithers and quantizes color value c in [0, 1] to the given color depth.
// It's expected that rng contains a uniform random variable on [0, 1].
uint dither_quantize(float c, uint depth, float rng) {
    float cmax = float(depth) - 1.0;
    float ci = c * cmax;

    float d;
    if (ci < 0.5 || ci >= cmax - 0.5) {
        // Uniform distribution on [-0.5, 0.5] for edges.
        d = rng - 0.5;
    } else {
        // Symmetric triangular distribution on [-1, 1].
        d = (rng < 0.5) ? sqrt(2.0 * rng) - 1.0 : 1.0 - sqrt(2.0 - 2.0*rng);
    }

    return uint(clamp(ci + d + 0.5, 0.0, cmax));
}