I have a shader that computes lighting for each light.

PointLight PointLights[10];

uniform const float NumPointLights;

for(int i = 0; i < NumPointLights; i++)
{
lightVec = PointLights[i].Position - pos;
lightDist = length(lightVec);
    // Do other stuff with light here, etc.
}

If I set NumPointLights to 2, the loop still iterates 10 times, and discards the result of the last 8 iterations.

Should I set a compiler flag that will permit the loop to actually loop only 8 times, or should I make 10 shaders, a shader for each number of lights that can be rendered?

On some small pieces of geometry I occaisionally need 10 lights. 90% of the time I only need 1-2 lights. How do I proceed?

Edit: I'm still not sure why, and if someone can explain why I'll accept their answer, but recompiling my code just now generated a shader that now does not loop all 10 times anymore, and in fact loops the number of times that is specified by NumPointLights.

Summary: I don't really have to make multiple shaders, the code now runs the loop a limited number of times as wanted.

I have a shader that computes lighting for each light.

PointLight PointLights[10];

uniform const float NumPointLights;

for(int i = 0; i < NumPointLights; i++)
{
lightVec = PointLights[i].Position - pos;
lightDist = length(lightVec);
    // Do other stuff with light here, etc.
}

If I set NumPointLights to 2, the loop still iterates 10 times, and discards the result of the last 8 iterations.

Should I set a compiler flag that will permit the loop to actually loop only 8 times, or should I make 10 shaders, a shader for each number of lights that can be rendered?

On some small pieces of geometry I occaisionally need 10 lights. 90% of the time I only need 1-2 lights. How do I proceed?

I have a shader that computes lighting for each light.

PointLight PointLights[10];

uniform const float NumPointLights;

for(int i = 0; i < NumPointLights; i++)
{
lightVec = PointLights[i].Position - pos;
lightDist = length(lightVec);
    // Do other stuff with light here, etc.
}

If I set NumPointLights to 2, the loop still iterates 10 times, and discards the result of the last 8 iterations.

Should I set a compiler flag that will permit the loop to actually loop only 8 times, or should I make 10 shaders, a shader for each number of lights that can be rendered?

On some small pieces of geometry I occaisionally need 10 lights. 90% of the time I only need 1-2 lights. How do I proceed?

I have a shader that computes lighting for each light.

PointLight PointLights[10];

uniform const float NumPointLights;

for(int i = 0; i < NumPointLights; i++)
{
lightVec = PointLights[i].Position - pos;
lightDist = length(lightVec);
    // Do other stuff with light here, etc.
}

If I set NumPointLights to 2, the loop still iterates 10 times, and discards the result of the last 8 iterations.

Should I set a compiler flag that will permit the loop to actually loop only 8 times, or should I make 10 shaders, a shader for each number of lights that can be rendered?

On some small pieces of geometry I occaisionally need 10 lights. 90% of the time I only need 1-2 lights. How do I proceed?

Edit: I'm still not sure why, and if someone can explain why I'll accept their answer, but recompiling my code just now generated a shader that now does not loop all 10 times anymore, and in fact loops the number of times that is specified by NumPointLights.

Summary: I don't really have to make multiple shaders, the code now runs the loop a limited number of times as wanted.