Programming Vertex & Pixel Shaders (Charles River Media Graphics) [Paperback]

Wolfgang Engel (Author)

Book Description

Series: Charles River Media Graphics | Publication Date: September 2004

When newer graphics cards started offering a programming interface to their graphics-processing unit (GPU), there was a fundamental change from fixed-function to programmable graphics hardware. This fundamental change offers a whole new level of opportunities for real-time graphics programmers. using shaders not only allows you to create unique games and graphics, but it allows you to be far more creative. Programming Vertex and Pixel Shaders uses a "cookbook" approach to teach beginning to intermediate graphics and game programmers to program shaders in the High-Level Shading Language (HLSL), the primary real0time shading language used in recent game development. The book uses a wide range of examples (over 60) to teach various techniques, ranging from simple real-time lighting to advanced, cutting-edge rendering. The book is broken into eight parts covering introductory material, shadows, high dynamic range lighting, lighting algorithms, vertex texturing, projective texture mapping, environment cube mapping, and advanced reflectance algorithms (Cook-Torrance, Oren-Nayar, Ward, and Ashikhmin-Shirly). The coverage starts from the beginning, so no existing knowledge of shader programming is required. This book does assume a basic understanding of the math typically used in a game engine and an intermediate understanding of the Direct3D API. This is the one resource developers need to learn practical current techniques for programming shaders for next-generation games and graphics!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Wolfgang is working in Rockstar's core technology group as the lead graphics programmer. He is the editor of the ShaderX books, the author of several other books and loves to talk about graphics programming. He is also a MVP DirectX since July 2006 and active in several advisory boards in the industry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (September 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584503491
• ISBN-13: 978-1584503491
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,553,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent !!!, September 18, 2004

By 

cYrus (PL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming Vertex & Pixel Shaders (Charles River Media Graphics) (Paperback)

The book starts with short introduction and pipeline overview giving an overall picture of how vertex and pixel shaders interact, and how data flows between them and the hardware. Next, it introduces DirectX High-Level Shading Language (HLSL) and Microsoft's Effect Files Framework. Then author starts teaching you how to implement basic lightning models (Lambert, Phong, Blinn-Phong) and advanced ones (Cook-Torrance, Oren-Nayar, Ward, Ashikhmin-Shirley). The book also covers more advanced topics (Environment Cube Mapping, Reflection and Refraction, Projective Texture Mapping, Shadow Mapping, Shadow Volumes, Geometry Images) and cutting-edge techniques like Displacement Mapping, High Dynamic Range Lighting or Parallax Mapping. The author shows common problems arising during implementation of presented techniques and explains how to deal with them. Each chapter comes with a few example programs which are as simple as possible. You will also learn from this book how to optimize your shaders for different shader models.

This book is a must for those who want to learn vertex and pixel shader programming. Also advanced developers will find this book useful.

So, if you want to create cutting-edge shader effects do not hesitate to buy this book and learn how to do it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Has EVERYTHING about DirectX 9 shaders, September 8, 2004

By 

Robert Lewis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming Vertex & Pixel Shaders (Charles River Media Graphics) (Paperback)

This is a book that gets straight to the point. It covers a wide variety of rendering topics relevant to vertex and pixel shader programming, all with clear example code. The topics are covered in enough detail for the reader to create their own great 3D effects. The introductory sections are well structured and serve as a valuable reference for HLSL and shader assembly. On top of all of this, the coverage of new shader models vs_3_0 and ps_3_0 is the best I've seen. Five stars!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Book!, September 8, 2004

By 

Heisenberg (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming Vertex & Pixel Shaders (Charles River Media Graphics) (Paperback)

I have recently completed an online course (www.gameversity.com) organised by Wolfgang Engel, which included identical material to this book.
The material covered is perfectly balanced - I started the course with no working knowledge of shader programming. The initial concepts are clearly explained and unlaboured, despite the inevitable rush of information! Once you learn the ropes, it gives good explanations and implementations of more advanced topics and cutting-edge techniques.
I can now write and develop my own Shader Model 1.x/2.x/3.0/HLSL shaders, applications to implement them, and develop new techniques confidently. What more can you ask for?!