Microsoft DirectX 9 Programmable Graphics Pipeline [Paperback]

Learn how to use programmable shaders in the DirectX 9 graphics pipeline—and deliver awesome 3-D graphics to your animations, games, and other multimedia applications. This book distills hundreds of hours of hands-on guidance from the developers on the Microsoft DirectX team—as well as insights from leading-edge video card manufacturers—into step-by-step instruction and best practices for exploiting the programmable pipeline. You’ll see how to program shaders in assembly-language as well as the new high-level shader language (HLSL)—and you get complete code walk throughs for all the sample programs and the DirectX 9 SDK on CD.

Discover how to:

• Program vertex shaders to create transformations, apply vertex fog, or deform geometry
• Generate 2-D image effects?such as output color inversion—with pixel shaders
• Use HLSL to add a semi-transparent glow effect by combining a vertex shader and frame buffer blending
• Produce a metallic paint effect by combining a vertex shader, a pixel shader, and a texture shader with multilayer texture blending
• Incorporate reflective surfaces into your 3-D scenes by applying an environment-map effect
• Experiment with the EffectEdit SDK sample to load and edit effect files and preview results on the fly
• Package multiple object-rendering techniques into a single effect for simpler pipeline state management

CD inside

Get code for all the sample programs plus SDKAbout Programmable Shaders. With programmable shaders, you get unprecedented control over rendering options in DirectX 9. You can use vertex shaders to deform geometry, apply procedural textures with pixel and texture shaders, and use effects to encapsulate shader and pipeline state—making code reuse a snap.

CD features: Sample programs that demonstrate:

• Vertex shader transformations, lighting, fog, vertex displacement, and vertex blending
• Pixel shader texturing, 2-D image processing, and lighting
• Texture shader generation of procedural textures
• Encapsulating assembly-language and HLSL shaders into an effect
• Interactive development of an effect using EffectEdit
• DirectX 9 SDK
• Fully searchable eBook

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