3D Fundamentals Tutorial 9

In this tutorial we incorporate our first shader stage into the 3D pipeline: the pixel shader stage. We also explore some basic example pixel shaders (more heavy-duty stuff to come later).

Video

The tutorial video is on YouTube here.

• What is a Pixel Shader and why is it used? 0:20

• We want to make color mapping of the triangles in the rendering pipeline configurable
• One way is to use templated function objects (functors) as "plug-in" code
• These functors determine the color of the pixel based on their input

• Refactoring of the gfx.PutPixel(...) function in Pipeline.h 2:04

• This is where we are ultimately determining the color of the pixel
• Inside the PutPixel function, we want to call a shader object that defines the coloring behavior

• Implementation of the programmable pixel shader stage in the pipeline 3:11

• We template the pipeline class on an <class Effect>
• We will adjust the definition of the Vertex class depending on what effect we are using
• We adjust gfx.PutPixel(...) to take a pixel shader object, and call the function operator with the interpolated Vertex data:

gfx.PutPixel( x,y,effect.ps( iLine ) );

• Changes to the Pipeline class 5:37

• The Pipeline object now holds an Effect object (which holds all shader data and methods)
• Coding the Effect class 6:03
• Coding the PixelShader class 6:22

• Putting it all together in a new CubeSkinScene.h class 7:26

• The code now renders the same scene, but has become completely configurable

• Making a new Effect: Color Blending 8:31

• Making a new Effect: Solid Colors 14:47

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Downloads

The GitHub repository for the tutorial code is here.

See also

• Planet Chili Patreon
• Next in series (Tutorial 10)
• 3D Fundamentals Series