Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Pixel Shader (PS) stage
The final programmable stage is the pixel shader. This stage executes a shader program that
performs per-pixel operations to determine the final color of each pixel. Operations that take
place here include per-pixel lighting and post processing.
Device context commands that control the pixel shader stage are grouped by the
PixelShader
property or begin with PS for the unmanaged API.
Output Merger (OM) stage
The final stage of the graphics pipeline is the output merger stage. This fixed function stage
generates the final rendered pixel color. You can bind a depth-stencil state to control z-buffering,
and bind a blend state to control blending of pixel shader output with the render target.
Device context commands that control the state of the output merger stage are grouped by
the
OutputMerger
property or for unmanaged begin with OM.
The dispatch pipeline
The dispatch pipeline is where compute shaders are executed. There is only one stage in this
pipeline, the compute shader stage. The dispatch pipeline and graphics pipeline cannot run
at the same time and there is an additional context change cost when switching between the
two, therefore calls to the dispatch pipeline should be grouped together where possible.
Memory Resources (Buffers,
Constant Buffers, Textures)
(CS)
Compute
Shader
Stage
Unordered Access Resources
Direct3D Dispatch/DirectCompute Pipeline
