DirectX® 9 High Level
Shading Language
Jason Mitchell
ATI Research
Outline
• Targeting Shader Models
• Vertex Shaders
– Flow Control
• Pixel Shaders
– Centroid interpolation
– Flow control
Shader Model Continuum
ps_1_4
ps_2_0
ps_2_b
ps_2_a
ps_3_0
vs_1_1
vs_2_0
vs_2_a
vs_3_0
ps_1_1 – ps_1_3
You Are Here
Tiered Experience
• PC developers have always had to scale the
visual experience of their game across a range
of platform capabilities
• Often, developers pick discrete tiers
– DirectX 7, DirectX 8, DirectX 9 is one example
• Shader-only games are in development
• We’re starting to see developers target the three
levels of shader support as the distinguishing
factor among the tiered game experience
Caps in addition to Shader Models
• In DirectX 9, devices can express their abilities via a
base shader version plus some optional caps
• At this point, the only “base” shader versions beyond 1.x
are the 2.0 and 3.0 shader versions
• Other differences are expressed via caps:
–
–
–
–
D3DCAPS9.PS20Caps
D3DCAPS9.VS20Caps
D3DCAPS9.MaxPixelShader30InstructionSlots
D3DCAPS9.MaxVertexShader30InstructionSlots
• This may seem messy, but it’s not that hard to manage
given that you all are writing in HLSL and there are a
finite number of device variations in the marketplace
• Can determine the level of support on the device by
using the D3DXGet*ShaderProfile() routines
Compile Targets / Profiles
• Whenever a new family of devices ships, the HLSL
compiler team may define a new target
• Each target is defined by a base shader version and a
specific set of caps
• Existing compile targets are:
– Vertex Shaders
• vs_1_1
• vs_2_0 and vs_2_a
• vs_3_0
– Pixel Shaders
• ps_1_1, ps_1_2, ps_1_3 and ps_1_4
• ps_2_0, ps_2_b and ps_2_a
• ps_3_0
Vertex Shader HLSL Targets
•
vs_2_0
– 256 Instructions
– 12 temporary registers
– Static flow control (StaticFlowControlDepth = 1)
•
vs_2_a
–
–
–
–
–
•
256 Instructions
13 temporary registers
Static flow control (StaticFlowControlDepth = 1)
Dynamic flow control (DynamicFlowControlDepth = 24)
Predication (D3DVS20CAPS_PREDICATION)
vs_3_0
– Basically vs_2_0 with all of the caps
– No fine-grained caps like in vs_2_0. Only one:
• MaxVertexShader30InstructionSlots (512 to 32768)
– More temps (32)
– Indexable input and output registers
– Access to textures
• texldl
• No dependent read limit
Vertex Shader Registers
• Floating point registers
– 16 Inputs (vn)
– Temps (rn)
• 12 in vs_1_1 through vs_2_0
• 32 in vs_3_0
– At least 256 Constants (cn)
• Cap’d: MaxVertexShaderConst
• Integer registers
– 16 (in)
• Boolean scalar registers
– 16 Control flow (bn)
• Address Registers
– 4D vector: a0
– Scalar loop counter (only valid in loop): aL
• Sampler Registers
– 4 of these in vs_3_0
Vertex Shader Flow Control
• Goal is to reduce shader permutations
– Control the flow of execution through a small number
of key shaders
• Code size reduction is a goal as well, but code is
also harder for compiler and driver to optimize
• Static Flow Control
– Based solely on constants
– Same code path for every vertex in a given draw call
• Dynamic Flow Control
– Based on data read in from VB
– Different vertices in a primitive can take different paths
Static Conditional Example
COLOR_PAIR DoDirLight(float3 N, float3 V, int i)
{
COLOR_PAIR Out;
float3 L = mul((float3x3)matViewIT, -normalize(lights[i].vDir));
float NdotL = dot(N, L);
Out.Color = lights[i].vAmbient;
Out.ColorSpec = 0;
if(NdotL > 0.f)
{
//compute diffuse color
bSpecular
Out.Color += NdotL * lights[i].vDiffuse;
is a
boolean declared at
global scope
//add specular component
if(bSpecular)
{
float3 H = normalize(L + V);
// half vector
Out.ColorSpec = pow(max(0, dot(H, N)), fMaterialPower) * lights[i].vSpecular;
}
}
return Out;
}
Static Conditional Result
...
if b0
mul
mad
mad
mad
dp3
rsq
mad
nrm
dp3
max
pow
mul
else
mov
endif
...
r0.xyz, v0.y, c11
r0.xyz, c10, v0.x,
r0.xyz, c12, v0.z,
r0.xyz, c13, v0.w,
r4.x, r0, r0
r0.w, r4.x
r2.xyz, r0, -r0.w,
r0.xyz, r2
r0.x, r0, r1
r1.w, r0.x, c23.x
r0.w, r1.w, c21.x
r1, r0.w, c5
r1, c23.x
r0
r0
r0
r2
Executes only if
bSpecular is TRUE
Two kinds of loops
• loop aL, in
– in.x - Iteration count (non-negative)
– in.y - Initial value of aL (non-negative)
– in.z - Increment for aL (can be negative)
– aL can be used to index the constant store
– No nesting in vs_2_0
• rep in
– in - Number of times to loop
– No nesting
Loops from HLSL
•
The D3DX HLSL compiler has some restrictions on the types of for loops
which will result in asm flow-control instructions. Specifically, they must be
of the following form in order to generate the desired asm instruction
sequence:
for(i = 0; i < n; i++)
•
•
•
This will result in an asm loop of the following form:
rep i0
...
endrep
In the above asm, i0 is an integer register specifying the number of times to
execute the loop
The loop counter, i0, is initialized before the rep instruction and
incremented before the endrep instruction.
Static Loop
...
Out.Color = vAmbientColor;
// Light computation
for(int i = 0; i < iLightDirNum; i++) // Directional Diffuse
{
float4 ColOut = DoDirLightDiffuseOnly(N, i+iLightDirIni);
Out.Color += ColOut;
}
...
Out.Color *= vMaterialColor;
// Apply material color
Out.Color = min(1, Out.Color);
// Saturate
Static Loop Result
vs_2_0
def c58, 0, 9, 1, 0
dcl_position v0
dcl_normal v1
...
rep i0
add r2.w, r0.w, c57.x
mul r2.w, r2.w, c58.y
mova a0.w, r2.w
nrm r2.xyz, c2[a0.w]
mul r3.xyz, -r2.y, c53
mad r3.xyz, c52, -r2.x, r3
mad r2.xyz, c54, -r2.z, r3
dp3 r2.x, r0, r2
slt r3.w, c58.x, r2.x
mul r2, r2.x, c4[a0.w]
mad r2, r3.w, r2, c3[a0.w]
add r1, r1, r2
add r0.w, r0.w, c58.z
endrep
mov r0, r1
mul r0, r0, c55
min oD0, r0, c58.z
Executes once
for each
directional
diffuse light
Subroutines
• Currently, the HLSL compiler inlines all
function calls
• Does not generate call / ret instructions
and likely won’t do so until a future release
of DirectX
• Subroutines aren’t needed unless you find
that you’re running out of shader
instruction store
Dynamic Flow Control
• If D3DCAPS9.VS20Caps.DynamicFlowControlDepth > 0,
dynamic flow control instructions are supported:
– if_gt
if_lt if_ge if_le if_eq if_ne
– break_gt break_lt break_ge break_le break_eq break_ne
– break
• HLSL compiler has a set of heuristics about when it is
better to emit an algebraic expansion, rather than use
actual dynamic flow control
–
–
–
–
Number of variables changed by the block
Number of instructions in the body of the block
Type of instructions inside the block
Whether the HLSL has texture or gradient instructions inside the
block
Obvious Dynamic Early
-Out Optimizations
Early-Out
• Zero skin weight(s)
– Skip bone(s)
• Light attenuation to zero
– Skip light computation
• Non-positive Lambertian term
– Skip light computation
• Fully fogged pixel
– Skip the rest of the pixel shader
• Many others like these…
Dynamic Conditional Example
COLOR_PAIR DoDirLight(float3 N, float3 V, int i)
{
COLOR_PAIR Out;
float3 L = mul((float3x3)matViewIT, -normalize(lights[i].vDir));
float NdotL = dot(N, L);
Out.Color = lights[i].vAmbient;
Out.ColorSpec = 0;
if(NdotL > 0.0f)
{
//compute diffuse color
Out.Color += NdotL * lights[i].vDiffuse;
Dynamic condition
which can be different
at each vertex
//add specular component
if(bSpecular)
{
float3 H = normalize(L + V);
// half vector
Out.ColorSpec = pow(max(0, dot(H,N)), fMaterialPower) * lights[i].vSpecular;
}
}
return Out;
}
Result
dp3 r2.w, r1, r2
if_lt c23.x, r2.w
if b0
mul r0.xyz, v0.y, c11
mad r0.xyz, c10, v0.x,
mad r0.xyz, c12, v0.z,
mad r0.xyz, c13, v0.w,
dp3 r0.w, r0, r0
rsq r0.w, r0.w
mad r2.xyz, r0, -r0.w,
nrm r0.xyz, r2
dp3 r0.w, r0, r1
max r1.w, r0.w, c23.x
pow r0.w, r1.w, c21.x
mul r1, r0.w, c5
else
mov r1, c23.x
endif
mov r0, c3
mad r0, r2.w, c4, r0
else
mov r1, c23.x
mov r0, c3
endif
r0
r0
r0
r2
Executes only if
N·L is positive
Hardware Parallelism
• This is not a CPU
• There are many shader units executing in parallel
– These are generally in lock-step, executing the same instruction
on different pixels/vertices at the same time
– Dynamic flow control can cause inefficiencies in such an
architecture since different pixels/vertices can take different code
paths
• Dynamic branching is not always a performance win
• For an if…else, there will be cases where evaluating
both the blocks is faster than using dynamic flow control,
particularly if there is a small number of instructions in
each block
• Depending on the mix of vertices, the worst case
performance can be worse than executing the straight
line code without any branching at all
Pixel Shader HLSL Targets
ps_2_0
ps_2_b
ps_2_a
ps_3_0
64 + 32
512
512
≥ 512
Temp Registers
12
32
22
32
Levels of dependency
4
4
Unlimited
Unlimited
Arbitrary swizzles
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
8
8
8
9
Instructions
Predication
Static flow control
Gradient Instructions
Dynamic Flow Control
vFace
vPos
9
9
Centroid Interpolation
• When multisample antialiasing,
some pixels are partially covered
• Pixel shader is run once per pixel
• Interpolated quantities are
evaluated at pixel center
• However, the center of the pixel
may lie outside of the primitive
• Depending on the meaning of the
interpolator, this may be bad, due
to what is effectively extrapolation
beyond the edge of the primitive
• Centroid interpolation evaluates
the interpolated quantity at the
centroid of the covered samples
• Available in ps_2_0 as of DX9.0c
Pixel Center
Sample Location
Covered Pixel Center
Covered Sample
Centroid
4-Sample Buffer
Centroid Interpolation
• When multisample antialiasing,
some pixels are partially covered
• Pixel shader is run once per pixel
• Interpolated quantities are
evaluated at pixel center
• However, the center of the pixel
may lie outside of the primitive
• Depending on the meaning of the
interpolator, this may be bad, due
to what is effectively extrapolation
beyond the edge of the primitive
• Centroid interpolation evaluates
the interpolated quantity at the
centroid of the covered samples
• Available in ps_2_0 as of DX9.0c
Pixel Center
Sample Location
Covered Pixel Center
Covered Sample
Centroid
One Pixel
Centroid Usage
• When?
– Light map paging
– Interpolating light vectors
– Interpolating basis vectors
• Normal, tangent, binormal
• How?
– Colors already use centroid interpolation automatically
– In asm, tag texture coordinate declarations with _centroid
– In HLSL, tag appropriate pixel shader input semantics:
float4 main(float4 vTangent : TEXCOORD0_centroid){}
Aliasing due to Conditionals
• Conditionals in pixel shaders can cause
aliasing!
• Avoid doing a conditional with a quantity
that is key to determining your final color
– Do a procedural smoothstep, use a prefiltered texture for the function you’re
expressing or bandlimit the expression
– This is a fine art. Huge amounts of effort go
into this in the offline world where procedural
RenderMan shaders are a staple
Shader Antialiasing
• Computing derivatives (actually first
differences in hardware) of shader
quantities with respect to screen x, y
coordinates is fundamental to
procedural shading
• For regular texturing, LOD is calculated
automatically based on a 2×2 pixel
quad, so you don’t generally have to
think about it, even for dependent
texture fetches
• The HLSL ddx(), ddy() derivative
intrinsic functions, available when
compiling for ps_2_a or ps_3_0, can
compute these derivatives
Derivatives and Dynamic Flow Control
• The result of a gradient calculation on a
computed value (i.e. not an input such as a
texture coordinate) inside dynamic flow control is
ambiguous when adjacent pixels may go down
separate paths
• Hence, nothing that requires a derivative of a
computed value may exist inside of dynamic flow
control
– This includes most texture fetches, ddx() and ddy()
– texldl and texldd work since you have to
compute the LOD or derivatives outside of the
dynamic flow control
• RenderMan has similar restrictions
Dynamic Texture Loads
...
float edge;
float2 duvdx, duvdy;
edge = tex2D(EdgeSampler, oTex0).r;
duvdx = ddx(oTex0);
duvdy = ddy(oTex0);
Compute gradients
outside of flow control
if(edge > 0)
{
return tex2D(BaseSampler, oTex0, duvdx, duvdy);
}
else
{
return 0;
}
...
Resulting ASM
ps_3_0
def c0, 0, 1, 0, 0
def c1, 0, 0, 0, 0
dcl_texcoord v0.xy
dcl_2d s0
dcl_2d s1
texld r0, v0, s1
cmp r0.w, -r0.x, c0.x, c0.y
dsx r0.xy, v0
dsy r1.xy, v0
if_ne r0.w, -r0.w
texldd oC0, v0, s0, r0, r1
else
mov oC0, c0.x
endif
Dynamic Texture Load on a
non
-mipmapped texture
non-mipmapped
...
float edge;
edge = tex2D(EdgeSampler, oTex0).r;
if(edge > 0)
{
return tex2Dlod(BaseSampler, oTex0);
}
else
{
return 0;
}
...
oTex0.zw should be
set to zero
Resulting ASM
ps_3_0
def c0, 0, 1, 0, 0
def c1, 0, 0, 0, 0
dcl_texcoord v0
dcl_2d s0
dcl_2d s1
texld r0, v0, s1
cmp r0.w, -r0.x, c0.x, c0.y
if_ne r0.w, -r0.w
texldl oC0, v0, s0
else
mov oC0, c0.x
endif
vFace & vPos
• vFace – Scalar facingness register
– Positive if front facing, negative if back facing
– Can do things like two-sided lighting
– Appears as either +1 or -1 in HLSL
• vPos – Screen space position
– x, y contain screen space position
– z, w are undefined
Acknowledgements
• Thanks to Craig Peeper and Dan Baker of
Microsoft for HLSL compiler info