Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
How it works…
By changing the texture properties in the DGSL file to Public Access, we make the
corresponding texture properties visible within the 3D Scene (
.fbx
) graphics editor.
The Visual Studio graphics content pipeline will then convert the assigned textures to DDS
textures, and copy them to the output directory along with the compiled mesh (
.cmo
) file.
Adding surface detail with normal mapping
Normal mapping allows us to perturb normal vectors so that the light bounces from the
surface in the correct direction, making the appearance of additional detail on the surface
where otherwise there is not. We have already added support for loading multiple textures for
a mesh, both in the
MeshRenderer
class in the
Loading a static mesh from a file
recipe in
Chapter 3
,
Rendering Meshes
, and within models in the previous recipe
Referencing multiple
textures in a material
with the Visual Studio graphics content pipeline. Now, we need to
update our shaders to sample the normal map and calculate the final normal direction.
Here, we will update the vertex structure and shaders to support passing a vertex's
tangent vector from the loaded mesh in order to calculate the new normal direction.
We also look at the changes necessary to support normal mapping within the tessellation
pipeline if that is in use.
Getting ready
In this recipe, we will begin with the completed mesh renderer class from
Chapter 4
,
Animating Meshes with Vertex Skinning
.
We will be using a number of new models along with some new textures. These assets are
available with the completed project in the companion download. The completed version
of this recipe is available from the companion code as
Ch06_01DisplacementMapping
.
These models also require the use of
MultipleTextures.dgsl
that we created in the
previous
Referencing multiple textures in a material
recipe with the Visual Studio graphics
content pipeline.
To add the models for this recipe, follow these steps:
1.
With the Visual Studio shader graph
MultipleTextures.dgsl
in place, we can
add the new 3D scenes from the downloaded content. Go ahead and add
Cube.
fbx
,
Plane.fbx
, and
Tree.fbx
along with their textures to the root of our
project directory. The
*.fbx
files need to be included in the project, and have the
MeshContentTask
applied as explained in
Chapter 3
,
Rendering Meshes
.
