Mesh Rendering - Practical Rendering and Computation with Direct3D 11 - page 376

Mesh Rendering
Our first sample chapter will cover the fairly broad topic of mesh rendering. As we have
seen in Chapter 3, there are many different ways to submit work for the GPU to perform.
To introduce the beginner to a basic example of how this can be achieved, we begin with a
discussion of transformation matrices and how they are used in the context of the render-
ing pipeline to achieve basic mesh placement within a scene. After the basics of animating
an object have been covered, we extend the simple transformation matrices to allow for
animation to take place within the mesh itself. A technique for vertex skinning is presented,
which allows a number of transformation matrices to be used to deform the basic shape of
a model for more flexibility in how a mesh can be manipulated. Finally, we discuss adding
displacement mapping to our vertex skinning sample. Displacement mapping allows the
higher-frequency details of a model to be stored in a texture instead of within the mesh
itself, potentially allowing for improvements on the standard vertex skinning technique.
8.1 Mesh Transformations
This section will cover some of the basic rendering operations found in a typical real-time
rendering application. The rendering of a triangle mesh at a desired location, orientation,
and scale within a scene can be considered the absolute minimum operation that a render-
ing framework must be able to perform. This chapter serves as an introduction to using the
Directs D 11 rendering pipeline, and also provides an example of the methodology that will be
followed throughout the remainder of the topic to design and implement rendering techniques.
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