GDC2005_FarCryAndDX9.pptVIP

Far Cry and DirectX Carsten Wenzel Far Cry uses the latest DX9 features Shader Models 2.x / 3.0 ? Except for vertex textures and dynamic flow control Geometry Instancing ? Floating-point render targets ? Dynamic flow control in PS To consolidate multiple lights into one pass, we ideally would want to do something like this… Dynamic flow control in PS Welcome to the real world… Dynamic indexing only allowed on input registers; prevents passing light data via constant registers and index them in loop Passing light info via input registers not feasible as there are not enough of them (only 10) Dynamic branching is not free Loop unrolling We chose not to use dynamic branching and loops Used static branching and unrolled loops instead Works well with Far Cry’s existing shader framework Shaders are precompiled for different light masks 0-4 dynamic light sources per pass 3 different light types (spot, omni, directional) 2 modification types per light (specular only, occlusion map) Can result in over 160 instructions after loop unrolling when using 4 lights Too long for ps_2_0 Just fine for ps_2_a, ps_2_b and ps_3_0! To avoid run time stalls, use a pre-warmed shader cache How the shader cache works Specific shader depends on: Material type(e.g. skin, phong, metal) Material usage flags(e.g. bump-mapped, specular) Specific environment(e.g. light mask, fog) How the shader cache works Cache access: Object to render already has shader handles? Use those! Otherwise try to find the shader in memory If that fails load from harddisk If that fails generate VS/PS, store backup on harddisk Finally, save shader handles in object Not the ideal solution but Works reasonably well on existing hardware Was easy to integrate without changing assets For the cache to be efficient… All used combinations of a shader should exist as pre-cached files on HD On the fly update causes stalls due to time required for shader compilation! However, maintaining the cache can become cumbersome Loop u