Shaders and Effects - Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 - page 267

Part IV
Shaders and Effects
Thus far, we have achieved a desired effect by altering the configuration
of device states such as transforms, lights, textures, and render states.
Although the various supported configurations provide us with some
flexibility, we are still limited to predefined fixed operations (hence the
name “fixed function pipeline”).
The primary theme of this part is vertex and pixel shaders, which
replace sections of the fixed function pipeline with a custom program
that we implement, called a shader . Shaders are completely programma-
ble and allow us to implement techniques that are not defined in the
fixed function pipeline. Consequently, the number of techniques that we
have available at our disposal has greatly increased. The programmable
sections of the rendering pipeline are commonly referred to as the pro-
grammable pipeline . A brief description of the chapters in this part
follows.
Chapter 16, “Introduction to the High-Level Shading Language”—
In this chapter we explore the High-Level Shading Language (HLSL),
which is the language we use to write vertex and pixel shader pro-
grams in this topic.
Chapter 17, “Introduction to Vertex Shaders”—This chapter
explains what vertex shaders are and how to create and use them in
Direct3D. The chapter illustrates vertex shaders by explaining the
implementation of a cartoon styled shading technique.
Chapter 18, “Introduction to Pixel Shaders”—This chapter
explains what pixel shaders are and how to create and use them in
Direct3D. The chapter concludes by showing how to implement
multitexturing using a pixel shader.
Chapter 19, “The Effects Framework”—In this chapter, we discuss
the Direct3D effects framework. The chapter describes the purpose of
the effects framework, the structure and syntax of effect files, how to
create effect files, and how to use effect files in Direct3D applications.
267