Adam Pletcher Volition, Inc. / THQ

1. Shader Pipeline – Volition, Inc. Adam Pletcher Volition, Inc. / THQ

2. Shader Pipeline – Volition, Inc. Initial Goals • Awesome effects • Artist-driven • Familiar interface, ease of use • Easy to manage, update

3. Shader Pipeline – Volition, Inc. Step 1: Shader Creation • Volition’s shaders created by Tech Artists • Initial authoring tool: RT/Shader Ginza Other examples: FX Composer, RenderMonkey, and 3ds Max • 5% hand-coded, 95% visual • Output result is .FX file, HLSL language

4. Shader Pipeline – Volition, Inc. Step 2: .FX Parsing/Compiling • Automatic process • Divides .FX into lighting passes for game • Register compacting • Fixes various “quirks” • Output is one new .FX file per target platform, plus one for 3ds Max

5. Shader Pipeline – Volition, Inc. Step 3: Content Creation – 3ds Max • MaxScript Material – extends DX9 Shader material. This allows: - Tailored interface - Error checking, validation - Extended features - Updating • Artists use Material Editor like usual • Viewport is exactly like game

6. Shader Pipeline – Volition, Inc. Step 4: Export to Game • One-click for artists • Export process integrates shader parameters into game-side shaders • Output is some pretty stuff Examples in 3ds Max