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	Pixel Shaders
		A Pixel Shader is a graphics function that calculates effects on a per-pixel basis.
		Depending on resolution, in excess of 2 million pixels may need to be rendered, lit, shaded, and colored for each frame, at 60 frames per second.
		Programmable Pixel Shaders then give artists and developers the ability to create per-pixel effects that mirror their creative vision.
	www.nvidia.com /object/feature_pixelshader.html (343 words)

	GameDev.net -- Shader Programming Part III: Fundamentals of Pixel Shaders
		For example to calculate per-pixel lighting the pixel shader needs the orientation of the triangle, the orientation of the light vector and in some cases the orientation of the view vector.
		On pixel shader-capable hardware, the pixel shader heightens the number of transistors on the graphic chip, because it is added to the already existing DX 6/7 multitexturing hardware.
		The already Gouraud shaded or flat shaded pixel might be combined in the pixel shader with the specular color and the texture values fetched from the texture map.
	www.gamedev.net /columns/hardcore/dxshader3 (3403 words)

	GameDev.net -- Introduction to Shader Programming Part IV: Programming Pixel Shaders
		In this simple example, the main difference between the ps.1.1 and the ps.1.4 pixel shader is the usage of the tex instructions in ps.1.1 to load the texture data into t0 and t1 and the usage of the texld instruction in ps.1.4 to load the texture data into r0 and r1.
		In this pixel shader, the texture with the color map is sampled from texture stage 0 with the texture coordinate set 0 and the texture with the normal map is sampled from texture stage 1 with the texture coordinate set 1.
		The calculation of the dp3 instruction in both pixel shaders is similar to the calculation of the diffuse reflection on a per-vertex basis in RacorX3 in part 2 of this introduction, although the values provided to dp3 for the per-pixel reflection model are generated on different ways.
	www.gamedev.net /columns/hardcore/dxshader4 (3877 words)

	Pixel Shaders
		Pixel shaders allow you to program the part of the graphics pipeline concerned with shading and texturing.
		For this example we are going to write a vertex shader and pixel shader and show how values can be calculated in the vertex shader for use in the pixel shader.
		Pixel shaders allow you to write code to handle the shading part of the graphics pipeline.
	www.toymaker.info /Games/html/pixel_shaders.html (1108 words)

	Writing HLSL Shaders (Site not responding. Last check: )
		For example, the output semantics for a vertex shader are used to link the outputs of the interpolators in the rasterizer to generate the input data for the pixel shader.
		The pixel shader outputs are the values provided to the alpha blending unit for each of the render targets or the depth value written to the depth buffer.
		A vertex shader that is consumed by the rasterizer and not exposed to the pixel shader must generate position data as a minimum.
	msdn.microsoft.com /archive/en-us/directx9_c_Dec_2005/Writing_HLSL_Shaders.asp?frame=true (4426 words)

	DevMaster.net - (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Pixel shaders is at the time of this writing only supported by GeForce 3/4TI and RADEON 8500-based cards and later cards.
		Pixel shaders often have to be "driven" by the vertex shader.
		For example to calculate per-pixel lighting the pixel shader needs the orientation of the triangle, the orientation of the light vector and in some cases the orientation of the view vector.
	www.devmaster.net /articles/shaders (555 words)

	Input Registers
		Pixel shader vertex color registers consist of at least two read-only registers that are generated as output from the vertex shader or the fixed function pipeline.
		The pixel shader constant registers are similar to the ones we used for vertex shaders.
		Due to the limited precision of pixel shader math (the registers values might possibly be represented internally by a fixed point representation) pixel shader constant registers can only have a range of [-1,1].
	www.directx.com /shader/pixel/inputregisters.htm (1250 words)

	TransGaming Technologies
		Oh yes, the water is truly lovely in Morrowind with pixel shaders turned on.
		Also, in an article I read recently about DirectX 9, pixel shading was demonstrated to provide very realistic and life-like surfaces like rust on an old truck (that was the example that was shown).
		Pixel shading is already here and Vertex shading is coming.
	www.transgaming.com /showthread.php?poll=355 (626 words)

	DirectX-Shaders - The Official Wine Wiki
		Some of the shader opcodes needed for shader versions 2 and higher are not accessible through ARB_vertex_program which is how we are currently implementing vertex and pixel shaders <= 1.4.
		Historically only vertex shaders (D3D8 ones, VS1.1) were running, using software rendering (pixel shaders will likely be too slow and tricky to simulate).
		Apps that use pixel shaders 1.x may be wrong in both ARB and GLSL because we're currently hard-coding them to use a specifc texture dimension while it could change any time.
	wiki.winehq.org /DirectX-Shaders (1030 words)

	Pixel Shaders, Part 1: An Introduction (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Pixel shader cards are becoming more common with the geForce3 having been available for about six months, and with the Radeon8500 now available, I expect that most graphics developers will have access to shader cards in the near future.
		This means that if you have a pixel shader that uses both diffuse and specular color as well as four textures, you better set two colors and four sets of texture coordinates in the vertex shader as outputs.
		There you have it—four vertex shaders providing inputs to ten pixel shaders, showing off the mechanics of using vertex and pixel shaders together, the coupling of vertex shaders to pixel shaders, and a casual notation for describing the blending equation each pixel shader uses.
	msdn2.microsoft.com /en-us/library/ms810491.aspx (4635 words)

	flipcode - Pixel Shader 2.0 Example
		Note that the semicolon is used to denote a comment in the pixel shader assembly language.
		The next step in the pixel shader is to declare t0, a texture coordinate input register, as holding 2D interpolated texture coordinates.
		We have to assemble the pixel shader file and tell the device to use that pixel shader rather than the shader from the fixed function pipeline.
	www.flipcode.com /articles/article_ps20tut.shtml (1780 words)

	Vertex Shaders and Pixel Shaders \| Tom's Hardware
		There are a number of reasons that pixel shaders should rock the world, primarily related to the overcomplicated compatibility-checking necessary for the fixed-function pipeline.
		The vertex shader method is limited to using the vertex shader constant memory, which only contains enough space for 24 matrices, and some of that memory is going to be used by a transformation matrix (-1 matrix), lighting data (at least -1 matrix), and data for whatever material model you use.
		The implementation, as it exists in the first generation of pixel shaders, isn't quite as powerful as it initially seems, mainly due to the rigid way that it must be used.
	www.tomshardware.com /2002/01/16/vertex_shaders_and_pixel_shaders/page5.html (1025 words)

	3Ddrome - Tutorial - Cg Pixel Shaders in OpenGL
		Pixel Shaders (also sometimes called Fragment Shaders or Fragment Programs) are executed on each pixel that's rendered.
		Next, we generate a shader number (which is an unsigned integer) to identify the shader with, then bind that shader number.
		In this shader, we'll use the second texture unit's texture coordinates to represent the pixel's position minus the light's position, which will be used for calculating the squared distance between the light and the pixel.
	www.3ddrome.com /articles/cgshaders.php (1235 words)

	What are Pixelshaders?
		A vertex shader is a graphics processing function used to add special effects to objects in a 3D environment by performing mathematical operations on the objects' vertex data.
		People talk about pixel shaders alot these days, but the vertex shader gave birth to the pixel shader, just as important of a discovery as hardware transform and lighting was a few years earlier.
		These new shaders have a much higher instruction count in comparison to their directX 8.1 bretheren, and allow game programmers to pull off some even cooler effects then they were able to before.
	www.tomshardware.com /forum/77561-33-what-pixelshaders (3143 words)

	Gamasutra - Features - "Implementing Modular HLSL with RenderMonkey" [05.14.03]
		After each vertex shader call, the pipeline breaks that vertex call into individual pixel calls and uses the (typically) interpolated values as input to the pixel shader, which then calculates the resulting color(s) as output from the pixel shader.
		The output from the vertex shader is used to calculate the input for the pixel shaders.
		Note there is nothing preventing you from placing any kind of data into the vertex shader's color or texture coordinate output registers and using them for some other calculations in the pixel shader.
	www.gamasutra.com /features/20030514/fosner_01.shtml (1251 words)

	RENDERMAN - WRITING DISPLACEMENT SHADERS
		Displacement shaders alter the smoothness of a surface, however, unlike bump mapping which mimics the appearance of bumpiness by reorientating surface normals, displacement shading genuinly effects the geometry of a surface.
		The "bumpiness" of the surface of an object to which this shader is applied depends on where in a 3D scene the object is located.
		Apply this shader to a surface but omit the abs() function and you will easily see the effect of forcing all the noisy displacements to be positive.
	www.fundza.com /rman_shaders/displacement/sl_displacement.html (1518 words)

	Programmable Shaders for DirectX 8.0 (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Pixel shaders are invoked after any DrawPrimitive or DrawIndexedPrimitive calls and generate the pixels that are written to the render target.
		Each vertex shader includes a declaration, which defines the inputs to the shader, including how the shader uses vertex elements in the input data streams, and a function, which defines the operations to apply to each vertex.
		Shaders use input registers to access vertex data; constant registers for stored constants such as lights and matrices; temp registers to save intermediate calculations; an address register; output registers; and the array of instructions.
	msdn2.microsoft.com /en-us/library/ms810459.aspx (2478 words)

	Are high instruction limits really needed for pixel shaders? [Archive] - Beyond3D Forum (Site not responding. Last check: )
		In reality, most shaders will render a lot more pixels than this (advanced shading on a 10x10 quad is pretty pointless!) so even if the shader has to multipass and take the full hit ten times (which, because of the effort put into reducing pipeline stalls, may not happen) it will still be similarly insignificant.
		Such huge pixel shader lengths (>300) could not be used on the whole scene even at 640x480, so even a 10% decrease in performance for these sections of the screen would not contribute a whole lot to the overall framerate anyway.
		On a DX8 part my guess would be that Vertex shaders would be more expensive to change than pixel shaders, but this is simple because of their size and the necessity of loading a number of constants (matrices etc) before they can be used.
	www.beyond3d.com /forum/archive/index.php/t-1299.html (5068 words)

	Forum Thread : vertex/pixel shaders :. GarageGames
		Shaders don't have to wait for the widespread use of the Geforce 3 or Radeon 2 to be relevant.
		Whilst I'm not exactly sure that hardware shaders will or will not be supported in the near future, I AM convinved that a shader based architecture is the most flexible solution and one thats been proven as a good method of organisign a render engine.
		Shaders are merely textual descriptions of the render functions and setups that should be set at the time a peice of geometry is rendered.
	www.garagegames.com /mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=261 (3678 words)

	HLSL Introduction
		To build a complete shader, new shading languages for GPU must work along with a host programming language such as C++, although it is tedious to set large amount of parameters, C++ is fastest.
		shader is consists of vertex shader and pixel shader.
		This is the structure from vertex shader to pixel shader (v2p).
	www.neatware.com /lbstudio/web/hlsl.html (3391 words)

	VERC · Vertex and Pixel Shaders
		The framebuffer is simply the memory where all the pixels to be drawn that scene are sent, and from there are sent to the screen.
		I understand Pixel Shaders a little, to be sure I do, in a nutshell it allows users to create thier own hardware accerated effects rather than using than just using the hardware programmed effects set.
		The problem with pixel shaders I see it is in the documentation, it still pretty poor even by MicroSofts own admission.
	collective.valve-erc.com /index.php?doc=1050408506-48967500 (2270 words)

	pixel shaders: Vertice est spécialisée sur les technologies 3d temps réel
		Vertex and pixel (or fragment) shaders are computer programs that run on a graphics card, executed once for every vertex or pixel in a specified 3D mesh.
		pixel shaders - Contraction de Picture / Elément: Plus petit élément ou point élémentaire d'affichage auquel peuvent être affectés séparément des attributs tels que luminosité, couleur, clignotement.
		Le nombre de pixels affichables dépend directement de la taille du moniteur utilisé et de la quantité de mémoire dont dispose la carte graphique.
	www.vertice.fr /Public/pixel-shaders/pixel_shaders.html (465 words)

	Getting Started Debugging Shaders (DirectX 9.0 C++)
		Do you want to debug your vertex and pixel shader code by stepping through the per-vertex code or the per-pixel code and watching instructions as they are executed, looking at the values in shader constants and variables, and setting breakpoints in trouble spots?
		The DirectX debug DLLs or the reference DLL can be used to debug vertex shaders, but a reference DLL must be used to debug a pixel shader.
		To debug a shader, the shader must be running on the right type of Direct3D device since vertex and pixel shaders can only be debugged on certain devices.
	msdn.microsoft.com /archive/en-us/directx9_c_Dec_2004/directx/graphics/programmingguide/hlslshaders/debuggingshaders.asp?frame=true (1559 words)

	Welcome to AnandTech.com [ Article: ATI SMARTSHADER Technology - Powering the next generation Radeon] (Site not responding. Last check: )
		This is done by producing pixel shaders and vertex shaders that are able to compile and run low level code, much like a CPU does.
		As a result of the large number of pixels present in a rendered scene, pixel shader operations have to be more simple than vertex shader operations, since the calculations must be computed many more times in a scene.
		Another advantage of pixel shader 1.4 is that Microsoft has reworked the language in which the shaders are written.
	www.anandtech.com /printarticle.html?i=1504 (1996 words)

	DirectX:Direct3D:Tutorials:Shaders Introduction - GPWiki
		Assembly shader (just shader from now on) is an assembly like language that runs on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU, otherwise known as video card).
		However, the moment you assign a Vertex Shader to the device, you are in charge of rotating, translating, scaling, and all sorts of fun stuff.
		Pixel Shaders are the actual pixels drawn to the screen.
	gpwiki.org /index.php/DirectX:Direct3D:Tutorials:Shaders_Introduction (701 words)

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