|
|
|
|
Pixel shader
|
| |
|
| |
A pixel shader is a shader program, often executed on a graphics processing unit. It adds 3D shading and lighting effects to pixels in an image, for example those in video games. Microsoft's Direct3D and Silicon Graphics' OpenGL support pixel shaders. In OpenGL a pixel shader is called a fragment shader.
xel shader computes color and other attributes of each pixel. Pixel shaders range from always outputting the same color, to applying a lighting value, to doing bump mapping, shadows, specular highlights, translucency and other phenomena.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Pixel shader' Start a new discussion about 'Pixel shader' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
A pixel shader is a shader program, often executed on a graphics processing unit. It adds 3D shading and lighting effects to pixels in an image, for example those in video games. Microsoft's Direct3D and Silicon Graphics' OpenGL support pixel shaders. In OpenGL a pixel shader is called a fragment shader.
Function
A pixel shader computes color and other attributes of each pixel. Pixel shaders range from always outputting the same color, to applying a lighting value, to doing bump mapping, shadows, specular highlights, translucency and other phenomena. A pixel shader alone cannot produce very complex effects, because it operates only on a single pixel, without knowledge of a scene's geometry or of neighboring pixels. A pixel shader is a computation kernel function. Pixel shaders can alter the depth of the pixel (for Z-buffering), or output more than one color if multiple render targets are active.
A shader ia a program which controls the pixels of shading and display such attributes of display processor.Basically the rasterization of image is affected by the pixel shader as extra processing is required for this purpose.
The interpolation used to determine the intensities of different colors such as bicubic interpolation for putting the pixels in the frame buffer.
Programming
Pixel shaders have been programmed in Assembly, Cg, GLSL, HLSL and other languages.
Compatibility
Hardware
This shows which cards, graphic chips, and DirectX-Version supports which Pixel-Shader-Version. Graphic chips usually are fully downward compatible (3.0 chip supports 2.0, 1.1, etc.).
| PS version | Direct3D version | 3DLabs | ATI | Intel | Matrox | NVIDIA | S3 Graphics | SiS | XGI | | 1.0/1.1 | 8.0 | - | - | - | - | GeForce 3 series | - | Xabre-Series | - | | 1.2 | 8.0a | Wildcat VP | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | | 1.3 | 8.0a | - | - | - | Parhelia series | GeForce 4 Ti/Go series | - | Mirage 2 | - | | 1.4 | 8.1 | - | Radeon R200 (8500-9250) | - | - | - | - | - | Volari V3 series (except V3XT) | | 2.0 | 9.0 | Wildcat Realizm | Radeon R300 (9500-9800, X300-X600) | Intel GMA 900, 950, 3000, 3100 | - | - | DeltaChrome, GammaChrome, Chrome S2x series | Mirage 3, Mirage 3+ | Volari V3XT, Volari V5 series, Volari V8 series, Volari 8300, Volari XP10 | | 2.0a | 9.0a | - | - | - | - | GeForce FX series | - | - | - | | 2.0b | 9.0b | - | Radeon R420 (X700-X850) | - | - | - | - | - | - | | 3.0 | 9.0c | - | Radeon R520 (X1300-X1950) | Intel GMA X3000 | - | GeForce 6 series, GeForce 7 series | - | - | - | | 4.0 | 10 | - | Radeon R600 (HD 2400-HD 2900) | Intel GMA X3100, X3500 | - | GeForce 8 series, GeForce 9 Series, GeForce 200 Series, Quadro FX 1700 | - | Mirage 4 | - | | 4.1 | 10.1 | - | Radeon R600 (HD 3xxx), Radeon R700 (HD 4xxx) | Intel GMA 500 | - | - | Chrome 400 Series | - | - |
(Italics indicate products that are not yet available.)
See also
Games that require Pixel Shaders
Pixel Shaders 1.1 (DirectX 8.0)
This is the list of computer games that require DirectX 8.0 programmable Pixel Shader 1.1 support to run, eg. Silent Hill 3. Games such as Half-Life 2 that only need pixel shader 1.1 as an optional feature will NOT be listed here. Users of graphics cards such as GeForce 4 MX will therefore not be able to run Silent Hill 3, but will run Half-Life 2 without problems.
- Alexander (needs confirmation)
- Act of War: Direct Action
- Advent Rising
- Battlefield 2
- Battlestations: Midway
- Bionicle Heroes
- Black & White 2
- BloodRayne 2
- Boiling Point: Road to Hell
- Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
- Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
- Caesar IV
- Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Works with 3d-analyze, fire comes out as dots and dashes, zeros and ones)
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
- Colin McRae Rally 2005
- Company of Heroes
- Darkstar One
- Driv3r
- Deus Ex: Invisible War
- Devil May Cry 3 (Works with 3D Analyzer confirmed. Use skip pixel shaders options, force 100 Hz, check performance mode, force SwTnL; Tested on Intel 865 onboard graphics)
- Doom 3 (The only supported DirectX 7.0 card is the GeForce 4 MX, all others such as the Radeon 7xxx and GeForce 2 lines are unsupported; however they can still run it. There have been cases of enthusiasts forcing Doom 3 to run on unsupported graphics chips, such as the Voodoo 2, but these are unable to render the per-pixel lighting and bump mapping.)
- Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper Edition
- Earth 2160(works with 3D Analyzer. only needs to enable 'emulate HW TnL caps'. Tested on Intel 945 onboard graphics)
- Empire Earth 2
- Eragon
- Fable: The Lost Chapters
- F.E.A.R.
- Heroes of Might and Magic V
- Jade Empire (Special Edition) (Missing Effects and not officially supported.)
- Just Cause
- Knights of the Temple 2
- Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (Works with 3d-analyze v2.36, smoke comes out not properly. Select Force high precision shader, force max pixel shader 1.1, all in Hardware limits (cap bits), emulate cube maps, emulate DXT textures)
- Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Works perfectly with 3d-analyze v2.36b. Select Force high precision shader, force max pixel shader 1.1, all in Hardware limits (cap bits), emulate cube maps, emulate DXT textures)
- Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
- Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
- Medieval II: Total War
- Mega Man X8 (Shader is not compulsory; can be played on a Direct X 7 card too)
- Men of Valor
- Need for Speed Carbon
- Open Season
- Paws & Claws Pet Vet 2: Healing Hands
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
- Portal
- Project: Snowblind
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (can be played with 3D-analyzer ver 2.34)
- Psychonauts (can be launched with 3D-analyze)
- Resident Evil 4/Biohazard 4 (after installing patch 1.0, the crashing issue has been fixed and the game works fine on shader 1.1 compatible cards too.)
- Richard Burns Rally
- Roboblitz
- Serious Sam 2
- Sid Meier's Railroads!
- Silent Hill 3 (can be launched with 3D-analyze)
- Silent Hill 4 (can be launched with 3D-analyze - Performance > force SW TnL, Hardware Limits(cap bits) > all, Vendor ID = 0, Device ID = 0, ANTI DETECT MODE > shaders and textures ).
- Silent Hunter III
- Sniper Elite
- Spore
- Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars
- Star Wars: Republic Commando (works with some texture problems)
- Sudeki (can run withuot shaders but may show alpha issues and texture problems)
- Team Fortress 2
- The Godfather: The Game
- The House of the Dead III
- The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II
- The Matrix: Path of Neo
- Thief: Deadly Shadows
- Titan Quest
- TMNT (video game) (shader is not needed to run the game. However, menus are invisible. The game can still be played but shadows and bloom effects will be missing)
- Toca Race Driver 3 (launches, but isn't playable)
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (can be launched with 3D-analyze)
- Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
- Top Spin
- Total World Demo
- Warriors Orochi
- Wildlife Park 2
- Wildlife Zoo
- Winning Eleven/ Pro Evolution Soccer series on PC (although playable frame rates are possible with a Geforce 4 MX if used with a fast enough CPU)
- Worms 4: Mayhem
- Virtua Tennis 3 (needs confirmation)
- Crazy Taxi 3
Pixel Shaders 1.3 (DirectX 8.1)
The following is a second list of computer games that require DirectX 8.0a programmable Pixel Shader 1.3 support to run, eg. X3: The Reunion. Games such as Half-Life 2 that only need pixel shader 1.3 as an optional feature will NOT be listed here. Users of graphics cards such as GeForce 3 will therefore not be able to run X3: The Renuion, but will run Half-Life 2 without problems.
Pixel Shaders 1.4 (DirectX 8.1)
The following is a third list of computer games that require DirectX 8.1 programmable Pixel Shader 1.4 support to run, eg. Hitman: Blood Money. Games such as Half-Life 2 that only need pixel shader 1.4 as an optional feature will NOT be listed here. Users of graphics cards such as GeForce 4 Ti will therefore not be able to run Hitman: Blood Money, but will run Half-Life 2 without problems.
Pixel Shaders 2.0 (DirectX 9.0)
The following is a fourth list of computer games that require DirectX 9.0 programmable Pixel Shader 2.0 support to run, eg. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Games such as Far Cry that only need pixel shader 2.0 as an optional feature will NOT be listed here. Users of graphics cards such as GeForce 3 will therefore not be able to run Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, but will run Far Cry without problems.
Note: The single-player demo version is missing PS 1.x support, which results in a visible interface, but a blank terrain onscreen.
Note: Oblivion does have a partially complete 1.x shader package, which the mod 'Oldblivion' completes, enabling it to run/walk on a GeForce3. By default, Oblivion doesn't complain of missing shaders when run on GF3/4 Ti, but there will be missing shading on most graphics.
Pixel Shaders 3.0 (DirectX 9.0c)
The following is a fifth list of computer games that require DirectX 9.0c programmable Pixel Shader & Vertex Shader support to run, eg. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Games such as Far Cry that only need Shader Model 3.0 as an optional feature will NOT be listed here. Users of graphics cards such as Radeon 9700 Pro will therefore not be able to run Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, but will run Far Cry without problems.
Graphic chipsets with pixel shader support
- See Pixel shader for a table of chipsets that support shaders.
While the ATI Radeon 7xxx series and NVIDIA GeForce2/GeForce4 MX series do have somewhat programmable pixel pipelines, they are not flexible enough to run shader programs of level 1.0. Shader Model 1.1 was the first standard used in games, and was first supported in DirectX 8.0.
Solution for unsupported cards
As of 2008, there are still a large number of users with low end PCs. Software tweaks, such as SwiftShader, swShader and 3D-analyze, can sometimes be used as a workaround for games requiring pixel shaders. However, this often renders games unplayable. Forcing such games to run on unsupported cards usually results in unrendered textures and lighting, as well as poor performance. Additionally, many online anti-cheat systems (such as Punkbuster) perform file and memory scans to ensure that game files have not been modified. As a result, those who attempt to play online using such workarounds may be unable to play, and in a worst case scenario, may in fact have their account/CD-key banned.
Some entry-level video cards supporting pixel shaders are considered affordable. As a result, replacing an unsupported card with a newer one is not only viable, but may also be more desirable than using workarounds.
See also
|
| |
|
|
