3D Vertex and Pixel Shaders - Game Coding Complete

Game Development Reference

In-Depth Information

n m_PixelShader is an instantiation of the GameCode4_Hlsl_VertexShader

class.

n m_pVertexBuffer and m_pIndexBuffer are ID3D11Buffer objects initial-

ized as you saw in the last chapter.

n pScene and pNode are cameos from the next chapter, and they describe the

scene your game is drawing and the particular object being rendered by the

shader.

The vertex and index buffer are set, and then the primitive topology is set. The topol-

ogy in this example is a triangle list, but many others are also supported. The topol-

ogy defines how the indexes refer into your vertex buffer, and if you are clever, you

can use this to optimize the size of your index buffer or draw different primitives like

lines instead of triangles. Definitely look further into topics written specifically for

Direct3D 11 or into the samples to learn more.

You

ve seen enough to be really dangerous in Direct3D 11 and perhaps even be dan-

gerous in any other renderer you choose, such as OpenGL. The concepts I presented

are the same. The only things different are the function calls, the coordinate systems,

the texturing support, how they expect your geometry, and so on. This chapter

'

s goal

was pretty aggressive, but even so I

ve only scratched the surface.

I suggest that you go play around a bit in Direct3D 11

'

s sample projects and get your

bearings. With what you learned, you ' ll probably be more at ease with them, and

maybe you won

t get as lost as I did when I first learned Direct3D 11. Even while

writing this topic, I spent plenty of hours cursing at E_INVALIDARG errors and

black screens. With any luck, you

'

ve got just enough knowledge in your head to per-

form some of your own twisting and cursing, but hopefully a little less that I did.

'