I
Part
2
DIRECT3D
FOUNDATIONS
n this part, we study fundamental Direct3D concepts and techniques that are used throughout the rest of this book. With these
fundamentals mastered, we can move on to writing more interesting applications. A brief description of the chapters in this part
follows.
Chapter 4, Direct3D Initialization: In this chapter, we learn what Direct3D is about and how to initialize it in preparation for 3D
drawing. Basic Direct3D topics are also introduced, such as surfaces, pixel formats, page flipping, depth buffering, and multisampling.
We also learn how to measure time with the performance counter, which we use to compute the frames rendered per second. In
addition, we give some tips on debugging Direct3D applications. We develop and use our own application framework–not the SDK's
framework.
Chapter 5, The Rendering Pipeline: In this long chapter, we provide a thorough introduction to the rendering pipeline, which is the
sequence of steps necessary to generate a 2D image of the world based on what the virtual camera sees. We learn how to define 3D
worlds, control the virtual camera, and project 3D geometry onto a 2D image plane.
Chapter 6, Drawing in Direct3D: This chapter focuses on the Direct3D API interfaces and methods needed to configure the rendering
pipeline, define vertex and pixel shaders, and submit geometry to the rendering pipeline for drawing. The effects framework is also
introduced. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to draw grids, boxes, spheres and cylinders.
Chapter 7, Lighting: This chapter shows how to create light sources and define the interaction between light and surfaces via
materials. In particular, we show how to implement directional lights, point lights, and spotlights with vertex and pixel shaders.
Chapter 8, Texturing: This chapter describes texture mapping, which is a technique used to increase the realism of the scene by
mapping 2D image data onto a 3D primitive. For example, using texture mapping, we can model a brick wall by applying a 2D brick
wall image onto a 3D rectangle. Other key texturing topics covered include texture tiling and animated texture transformations.
Chapter 9, Blending: Blending allows us to implement a number of special effects like transparency. In addition, we discuss the
intrinsic clip function, which enables us to mask out certain parts of an image from showing up; this can be used to implement fences
and gates, for example. We also show how to implement a fog effect.
Chapter 10, Stenciling: This chapter describes the stencil buffer, which, like a stencil, allows us to block pixels from being drawn.
Masking out pixels is a useful tool for a variety of situations. To illustrate the ideas of this chapter, we include a thorough discussion on
implementing planar reflections and planar shadows using the stencil buffer.
Chapter 11, The Geometry Shader: This chapter shows how to program geometry shaders, which are special because they can create
or destroy entire geometric primitives. Some applications include billboards, fur rendering, subdivisions, and particle systems. In
addition, this chapter explains primitive IDs and texture arrays.
Chapter 12, The Compute Shader: The Compute Shader is a programmable shader Direct3D exposes that is not directly part of the
rendering pipeline. It enables applications to use the graphics processing unit (GPU) for general purpose computation. For example, an
imaging application can take advantage of the GPU to speed up image processing algorithms by implementing them with the compute
shader. Because the Compute Shader is part of Direct3D, it reads from and writes to Direct3D resources, which enables us integrate
results directly to the rendering pipeline. Therefore, in addition to general purpose computation, the compute shader is still applicable
for 3D rendering.
Chapter 13, The Tessellation Stages: This chapter explores the tessellation stages of the rendering pipeline. Tessellation refers to
subdividing geometry into smaller triangles and then offsetting the newly generated vertices in some way. The motivation to increase
the triangle count is to add detail to the mesh. To illustrate the ideas of this chapter, we show how to tessellate a quad patch based on
distance, and we show how to render cubic Bézier quad patch surfaces.
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