What are Pixelshaders?

[fsalazar90]

i just pwned myself
shame on me... nvm

 

[Non-Profit]

Does that make a mess?

Did my questions suck? :?

Actually, I would like to better understand how the explanation relates to hardware implementation of pixelshaders and how gpu's and cpu's differ. GW said he's tried to learn as much as he can about graphic cards over the years and figured he might be willing to share some of his wisdom...

 

[chuckshissle]

www.google.com

I HELP BECAUSE U SUCK. 😛

 

[Non-Profit]

Theoretically the answer to every question is www.google.com, but if that's the case, there really isn't much of a point in these forums. I admit that I'm interested in GW's knowledge about the topic since he seems to be the guru and I'm just a newb!

Doesn't GeneticWeapon have a copyright on "I HELP BECAUSE U SUCK" 😛

 

[chuckshissle]

😀

 

[morpheous_2812]

Great Post! Thanks for the info. Been trying to improve myself on the various terms but found some sites too technical for my liking. Your post allows beginners to grasp a good basic understanding of what Pixelshaders are.

 

[kobi_af]

thx dude its will be useful for new users \ some pepole that dont know much about this

 

[macleg]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

lmfao - I KNEW someone would end up responding to that!

 

[still_life]

Just one question...

What are vertex and pixel shaders?

Hehe

 

[everett]

What's a pixel?

LOL that's a classic, and then someone tried to tell you :lol:

 

[sakib000]

then what will be the best price per performance cards will b

Top FPS games ever
cool pics

 

[kye3k1]

Pixel shaders and Vertex shaders no more. Its just ROPs and Stream Processors

Can you explain an ROP??

 

[Heyyou27]

This thread is over three years old. :?

 

[Dade_0182]

What's a pixel?

LOL that's a classic, and then someone tried to tell you :lol:I can't believe they fell for that. It's so lame it's actually just sad...

*Edit: fixed my quote...

 

[everett]

This thread is over three years old. :?

"Diggin up bone's, I'm diggin up bones."
"Diggin things thats better left alone."

Sorry, I had too. :lol:

 

[xsamitt]

Diggin' up bones hey?

You must like Randy Travis. :lol:

 

[jmd749]

thanks for the info, a refreshing read, knew most of it already though.

 

[gators1223]

Anyone know what is incuded in DX10 that the new nvidia cards come with? and whether it is much different from dx9

 

[minty]

Anyone know what is incuded in DX10 that the new nvidia cards come with? and whether it is much different from dx9

Direct3D 10

Windows Vista includes a major update to the Direct3D API. Originally called WGF 2.0 (Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0), DirectX 10 and DirectX Next, it features an updated shader model (version 4) — the shaders still consist of fixed stages like on previous APIs, but all stages sport a nearly unified interface, as well as a unified access to resources. The language itself has been extended to be more expressive (integer operations, nearly unlimited instructions count). In addition to the previously available vertex and pixel shader stages, the API includes a geometry shader stage that breaks the old model of one vertex in/one vertex out, to allow for more complex effects in real time. Direct3D 10 no longer uses "capability bits" to indicate which features are active on the current hardware. Instead, it defines a minimum standard of hardware capabilities which must be supported for a display system to be "Direct3D 10 compatible".

Therefore, contrary to the previous revisions of Direct3D, it requires new graphics hardware backed by WDDM-compliant drivers to run at all, whereas prior versions allow the old hardware capabilities to be addressed within the new interface. This is one of the major departure of this new API, and it is justified by Microsoft as the only way to achieve the CPU efficiency gains needed for the newest pieces of hardware without the clutter of legacy code.

Because Direct3D 10 hardware will be comparatively rare for a period of time after the release of Windows Vista, and because the Vista Premium logo program does not require Direct3D 10 to be supported, the first D3D10-compatible games will most likely still provide a Direct3D 9 render path.

New features

* Fixed pipelines are being done away with in favor of fully programmable pipelines (often referred to as unified pipeline architecture), which can be programmed to emulate the same.
* Paging of graphics memory, to allow data to be loaded to Video RAM when needed and move it out when not needed. This enables usage of the system memory to hold graphics data, such as textures, thereby allowing use of more and higher resolution textures in games (this was possible with older DirectX APIs by using the GART).
* There is no limit on the number of objects which can be rendered, provided enough resources are available.
* Virtualization of the graphics hardware, to allow multiple threads/processes to use it, in turns.
* New state object to enable the GPU to change states efficiently.
* Shader model 4.0, enhances the programmability of the graphics pipeline. It adds instructions for integer and bitwise calculations.
* Geometry shaders, which work on individual triangles which form a mesh.
* Texture arrays enable swapping of textures in GPU without CPU intervention.
* Resource View enables pre-caching of resources, thereby reducing latency.
* Predicated Rendering allows drawing calls to be ignored based on some other conditions. This enables rapid occlusion culling, which prevents objects from being rendered if it is not visible or too far to be visible.
* Instancing 2.0 support, allowing multiple instances of similar meshes, such as armies, or grass or trees, to be rendered in a single draw cell, reducing the processing time needed for multiple similar objects to that of a single one.

 

[Mr_Bluntman]

*cough*

n00b translation = DX10 will bring more flexibility and performance over DX9 rather than drastic IQ enhancements.

 

[f61]

Anti-Aliasing... the process by which a 42" 1366x768 LCD TV looks clear and sharp from 6 feet 😛 or you could just buy a 37" 1050x1920 :!:

with tongue firmly planted in cheek
f61

 

[spuddyt]

*cough*

n00b translation = DX10 will bring more flexibility and performance over DX9 rather than drastic IQ enhancements.

except that it doesn't, at least in the patched games like COH

 

[starcraftfanatic]

Someone needs to update this alot

 

[enewmen]

So what is all the fuss about DX10 and sm 4.0? I don't see any advantage yet.

 

[amnotanoobie]

This thread is over three years old. :?

Now it's actually four years old.... 😀

So what is all the fuss about DX10 and sm 4.0? I don't see any advantage yet.

It's like the case with DX8.1 to DX9, you gotta wait at least a year later to start seeing games that actually use it, and around another year to start seeing games that either use the full capability or use the specifications more efficiently.




I don't know why other people insist on digging up old bones.