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[Go Go Ackman!]

Shaders have been the dominant buzzword in graphics for at least this gen, and I still don't have a single fucking clue what they do. Also, what's the difference between vertex and per-pixel shading? Non-CS majors want to know.

 

[bbyybb]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shader


Wikipedia Go!


Cheers,
bbyybb.

 

[xzoowy]

Back in the GeForce2 days GPUs were not programmable, they always executed the same operations. Now recent GPU have programmable processors which the programmers can use.

A vertex shader is a program that is executed by the programmable vertex processor of the GPU wich replaces the fixed per-vertex stages of the GPU.

A fragment(pixel) shader is a program that is executed by the programmable fragment processor of the GPU wich replaces some fixed per-fragment stages of the GPU.

Shaders are basicaly used for visual effects, advance ligthing models, character animation or some procedural deformations.

 

[sc0la]

I love those two screen names in succesion

bbyybb
xzoowy

:lol I don't know why that is funny to me.

 

[sportzhead]

Back in the GeForce2 days GPUs were not programmable, they always executed the same operations. Now recent GPU have programmable processors which the programmers can use.

A vertex shader is a program that is executed by the programmable vertex processor of the GPU wich replaces the fixed per-vertex stages of the GPU.

A fragment(pixel) shader is a program that is executed by the programmable fragment processor of the GPU wich replaces some fixed per-fragment stages of the GPU.

Shaders are basicaly used for visual effects, advance ligthing models, character animation or some procedural deformations.

My brain just asked me wtf are you reading. :lol

 

[mrklaw]

pixel shader is a bit on the chip that runs a short program every time it colours in a dot on your screen. eg

hmm. What angle is my surface pointing at?
So how much light should I be reflecting?
Thanks for this texture Mr. Programmer - is it one I just paint on, or should I use it to make me look all bumpy?


It does that over and over. So much more flexibility, and it allows the programmers/artists to trade off visual quality/number of polygons etc.

 

[gofreak]

To clarify what vertices are - you know how 3D models are made up of triangles? Vertices are the points of the triangles. You need to move them about in games, and vertex shaders basically define how the programmer wants them moved.

 

[Shompola]

cant you use the programmable vertix shaders to do the phong reflection model?