Direct3D 11 offers such a wealth of capabilities that users can sometimes get lost in the details of specific APIs and their implementation. While there is a great deal of low-level information available about how each API function should be used, there is little documentation that shows how best to leverage these capabilities. Written by active me

Direct3D 11 offers such a wealth of capabilities that users can sometimes get lost in the details of specific APIs and their implementation. While there is a great deal of low-level information available about how each API function should be used, there is little documentation that shows how best to leverage these capabilities. Written by active members of the Direct3D community, Practical Rendering and Computation with Direct3D 11 provides a deep understanding of both the high and low level concepts related to using Direct3D 11. The first part of the book presents a conceptual introduction to Direct3D 11, including an overview of the Direct3D 11 rendering and computation pipelines and how they map to the underlying hardware. It also provides a detailed look at all of the major components of the library, covering resources, pipeline details, and multithreaded rendering. Building upon this material, the second part of the text includes detailed examples of how to use Direct3D 11 in common rendering scenarios. The authors describe sample algorithms in-depth and discuss how the features of Direct3D 11 can be used to your advantage. All of the source code from the book is accessible on an actively maintained open source rendering framework. The sample applications and the framework itself can be downloaded from http://hieroglyph3.codeplex.com By analyzing when to use various tools and the tradeoffs between different implementations, this book helps you understand the best way to accomplish a given task and thereby fully leverage the potential capabilities of Direct3D 11.

This updated bestseller provides an introduction to programming interactive computer graphics, with an emphasis on game development using DirectX 11. The book is divided into three main parts: basic mathematical tools, fundamental tasks in Direct3D, and techniques and special effects. It includes new Direct3D 11 features such as hardware tessellation, the compute shader, dynamic shader linkage and covers advanced rendering techniques such as screen-space ambient occlusion, level-of-detail handling, cascading shadow maps, volume rendering, and character animation. Includes a companion CD-ROM with code and figures. eBook Customers: Companion files are available for downloading with order number/proof of purchase by writing to the publisher at [email protected].

The Key to Fully Understanding the Basics of a 3D WorldProminently used in games, movies, and on television, 3D graphics are tools of creation used to enhance how material and light come together to manipulate objects in 3D space. A game-changer written for the non-technical mind, Essential Skills for 3D Modeling, Rendering, and Animation examines

An In-Depth, Practical Guide to GPGPU Programming Using Direct3D 11 GPGPU Programming for Games and Science demonstrates how to achieve the following requirements to tackle practical problems in computer science and software engineering: Robustness Accuracy Speed Quality source code that is easily maintained, reusable, and readable The book primarily addresses programming on a graphics processing unit (GPU) while covering some material also relevant to programming on a central processing unit (CPU). It discusses many concepts of general purpose GPU (GPGPU) programming and presents practical examples in game programming and scientific programming. The author first describes numerical issues that arise when computing with floating-point arithmetic, including making trade-offs among robustness, accuracy, and speed. He then shows how single instruction multiple data (SIMD) extensions work on CPUs since GPUs also use SIMD. The core of the book focuses on the GPU from the perspective of Direct3D 11 (D3D11) and the High Level Shading Language (HLSL). This chapter covers drawing 3D objects; vertex, geometry, pixel, and compute shaders; input and output resources for shaders; copying data between CPU and GPU; configuring two or more GPUs to act as one; and IEEE floating-point support on a GPU. The book goes on to explore practical matters of programming a GPU, including code sharing among applications and performing basic tasks on the GPU. Focusing on mathematics, it next discusses vector and matrix algebra, rotations and quaternions, and coordinate systems. The final chapter gives several sample GPGPU applications on relatively advanced topics. Web Resource Available on a supporting website, the author’s fully featured Geometric Tools Engine for computing and graphics saves you from having to write a large amount of infrastructure code necessary for even the simplest of applications involving shader programming. The engine provides robust and accurate source code with SIMD when appropriate and GPU versions of algorithms when possible.

Thoroughly revised, this third edition focuses on modern techniques used to generate synthetic three-dimensional images in a fraction of a second. With the advent of programmable shaders, a wide variety of new algorithms have arisen and evolved over the past few years. This edition discusses current, practical rendering methods used in games and other applications. It also presents a solid theoretical framework and relevant mathematics for the field of interactive computer graphics, all in an approachable style. The authors have made the figures used in the book available for download for fair use.:Download Figures. Reviews Rendering has been a required reference for professional graphics practitioners for nearly a decade. This latest edition is as relevant as ever, covering topics from essential mathematical foundations to advanced techniques used by today’s cutting edge games. -- Gabe Newell, President, Valve, May 2008 Rendering ... has been completely revised and revamped for its updated third edition, which focuses on modern techniques used to generate three-dimensional images in a fraction of the time old processes took. From practical rendering for games to math and details for better interactive applications, it's not to be missed. -- The Bookwatch, November 2008 You'll get brilliantly lucid explanations of concepts like vertex morphing and variance shadow mapping—as well as a new respect for the incredible craftsmanship that goes into today's PC games. -- Logan Decker, PC Gamer Magazine , February 2009

Every animated film and video game production spends a large percentage of its resources and time on advancing the quality of the digital characters inhabiting the world being created. This book presents the theory and practice behind the creation of digital characters for film and games using software-agnostic descriptions that apply to any animation application. It provides insight from a real production environment and the requirements that such an environment imposes. With rich illustrations and visual code examples throughout, this book provides a comprehensive roadmap to character development for both professionals and students.

Programmable graphics shaders, programs that can be downloaded to a graphics processor (GPU) to carry out operations outside the fixed-function pipeline of earlier standards, have become a key feature of computer graphics. This book is designed to open computer graphics shader programming to the student, whether in a traditional class or on their own. It is intended to complement texts based on fixed-function graphics APIs, specifically OpenGL. It introduces shader programming in general, and specifically the GLSL shader language. It also introduces a flexible, easy-to-use tool, glman, that helps you develop, test, and tune shaders outside an application that would use them.

Visual effects (VFX) are one of the most complicated components of feature film and television creation. With advancements in such technologies as Ray Tracing and Virtual Reality, the visual quality of the real-time rendering engine is now rivaling feature film. Real-time rendering requires years of programming experience with advanced understanding in math and physics. As the power of the real-time rendering engine improves, so too do the interfaces for VFX creation. With limited technical understanding, artists can create VFX with the push of a button and tug of a slider. As powerful as the interfaces are, they can only expose a portion of the true potential of the rendering engine. Artists are limited by their understanding of the engine interface. Real Time Visual Effects for the Technical Artist is written for digital artists to explain the core concepts of VFX, common in all engines, to free them from interface bounds. Features: Introduces the reader to the technical aspects of real-time VFX Built upon a career of more than 20 years in the feature film VFX and the real-time video game industries and tested on graduate and undergraduate students Explores all real-time VFX in four categories: in-camera effects, in-material effects, simulations, and particles This book is written to complement undergraduate- or graduate-level courses focused on the fundamentals of modern real-time VFX. Chris Roda is a Technical Art instructor at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA), a graduate degree program in interactive, real-time application development at the University of Central Florida. Early in his career, Chris was a visual effects artist in the film and television industries where he contributed visual effects for films such as Spider-Man, Titanic, and The Fifth Element. Before coming to FIEA, Chris was a CG Supervisor at Electronic Arts, where he worked on video game titles such as NCAA Football and Madden NFL Football. In addition to teaching, Chris works on generating tools and pipelines for the creation of immersive experiences: the amalgamation of the narrative of films, the interactivity of video games, and the immersion of theme parks.

This textbook, first published in 2003, emphasises the fundamentals and the mathematics underlying computer graphics. The minimal prerequisites, a basic knowledge of calculus and vectors plus some programming experience in C or C++, make the book suitable for self study or for use as an advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate text. The author gives a thorough treatment of transformations and viewing, lighting and shading models, interpolation and averaging, Bézier curves and B-splines, ray tracing and radiosity, and intersection testing with rays. Additional topics, covered in less depth, include texture mapping and colour theory. The book covers some aspects of animation, including quaternions, orientation, and inverse kinematics, and includes source code for a Ray Tracing software package. The book is intended for use along with any OpenGL programming book, but the crucial features of OpenGL are briefly covered to help readers get up to speed. Accompanying software is available freely from the book's web site.