Intel Software Network articles Feed http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/visual-computing/type/download/ en-us Spark: Modular, Composable Shaders for Graphics Hardware

Spark: Modular, Composable Shaders for Graphics Hardware

By Tim Foley (Intel Corporation and Stanford University), Pat Hanrahan (Stanford University)

In creating complex real-time shaders, programmers should be able to decompose code into independent, localized modules of their choosing. Current real-time shading languages, however, enforce a fixed decomposition into per-pipeline-stage procedures. Program concerns at other scales - including those that cross-cut multiple pipeline stages - cannot be expressed as reusable modules.

We present a shading language, Spark, and its implementation for modern graphics hardware that improves support for separation of concerns into modules. A Spark shader class can encapsulate code that maps to more than one pipeline stage, and can be extended and composed using object-oriented inheritance. In our tests, shaders written in Spark achieve performance within 2% of HLSL.


Read the Siggraph paper: Spark: Modular, Composable Shaders for Graphics Hardware [PDF 3.1 MB]

Download the source code: spark-0.1.zip* [ZIP 36.3 MB];

Presented at: ACM SIGGRAPH 2011, Vancouver, B.C. Canada

 

Spark: Modular, Composable Shaders for Graphics Hardware. Tim Foley, Pat Hanrahan. In ACM Transactions on  Graphics (SIGGRRAPH 2011 Proceedings). Volume 30, Issue 4, Article 107. 2011.

*This software is subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations and other U.S. law, and may not be exported or re-exported to certain countries (Burma, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria) or to persons or entities prohibited from receiving U.S. exports (including Denied Parties, Specially Designated Nationals, and entities on the Bureau of Export Administration Entity List or involved with missile technology or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons).

 
08-07-2011
08-07-2011
Tech Articles
Research
In creating complex real-time shaders, programmers should be able to decompose code into independent, localized modules of their choosing. Current real-time shading languages, however, enforce a fixed decomposition into per-pipeline-stage procedures. Program concerns at other scales - including those that cross-cut multiple pipeline stages - cannot be expressed as reusable modules. We present a shading language, Spark, and its implementation for modern graphics hardware that improves support for separation of concerns into modules.
]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/spark-modular-composable-shaders-for-graphics-hardware/ Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/spark-modular-composable-shaders-for-graphics-hardware/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/spark-modular-composable-shaders-for-graphics-hardware/ Visual Computing Intel Software License Agreement for Intel® Media SDK (SDK, Single User) IMPORTANT - READ BEFORE COPYING, INSTALLING OR USING.
Do not use or load this software and any associated materials (collectively, the "Software") until you have carefully read the following terms and conditions. By loading or using the Software, you agree to the terms of this Agreement. If you do not wish to so agree, do not install or use the Software.

LICENSE: Subject to the restrictions below, Intel Corporation ("Intel") grants to you the following non-exclusive, non-assignable, royalty-free copyright licenses in the Software. The Software may contain the software and other property of third party suppliers, some of which may be identified in, and licensed in accordance with, the "license.txt" file or other text or file in the Software:
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  • Sample Source may include example interface or application source code. You may copy, modify and compile the Sample Source and distribute it in your own products in binary and source code form.
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GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS. The Software is provided with "RESTRICTED RIGHTS." Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in FAR52.227-14 and DFAR252.227-7013 et seq. or its successor. Use of the Software by the Government constitutes acknowledgment of Intel's proprietary rights therein. Contractor or Manufacturer is Intel Corporation, 2200 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95052.

]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-software-license-agreement-for-intel-media-sdk-sdk-single-user/ Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-software-license-agreement-for-intel-media-sdk-sdk-single-user/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-software-license-agreement-for-intel-media-sdk-sdk-single-user/ Visual Computing Media Dynamic Resolution Rendering

Dynamic Resolution Rendering

The Dynamic Resolution Rendering sample demonstrates a technique for dynamically adjusting the resolution of the main rendering, with graphical user interface components drawn at the native resolution. This technique can help developers achieve their quality and performance goals on a wide range of hardware and scene profiles. The sample also shows how the addition of scaling filters such as velocity aware temporal spatial anti-aliasing can enhance quality.


Video: Dynamic Rendering Resolution Walkthough Video
(click link to view larger)


Read: Dynamic Resolution Rendering
Blog Post: Dynamic Resolution Rendering Sample Now Live - Blog post by Doug Binks
DynamicResolutionRendering_ScreenShot01_thumb.jpg
DynamicResolutionRendering_ScreenShot02_thumb.jpg

A view of the swinging bell with supersampling enabled and dynamic resolution control set to give 30FPS. The geometric temporal anti-aliasing uses velocity aware filtering to reduce ghosting artefacts.

With dynamic resolution parts of the scene with higher performance can have increased resolutions, yet match the chosen performance criteria. Geometric temporal anti-aliasing gives additional smoothness to the edges.

An illustration of the basic principle of dynamic resolution.


System Requirements Additional Code Samples
  1. CPU: Intel® 2nd Generation Core i3 or better
  2. GFX: uses DX11 graphics API on DX10 (or better) hardware
  3. OS: Microsoft Vista / Windows 7*
  4. MEM: 2 GB of RAM or better
  5. Software:
    1. DirectX SDK (June 2010 release or later)
    2. Build with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010* or Microsoft Visual Studio 2008*

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.


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]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/dynamic-resolution-rendering/ Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/dynamic-resolution-rendering/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/dynamic-resolution-rendering/ Visual Computing Code & Downloads Game Development Morphological Antialiasing (MLAA)

Morphological Antialiasing

MLAA is an image-based, post-process filtering technique which identifies discontinuity patterns and blends colors in the neighborhood of these patterns to perform effective anti-aliasing. It is the precursor of a new generation of real-time antialiasing techniques that rival MSAA. This sample is based on the original, CPU-based MLAA implementation provided by Reshetov in 2009, with improvements to greatly increase performance. The improvements are:

o Integration of a new, efficient, easy-to-use tasking system implemented on top of Intel® Threading Building Blocks (Intel® TBB).
o Integration of a new, efficient, easy to use pipelining system for CPU onloading of graphics tasks.
o Improvement of data access patterns through a new transposing pass.
o Increased use of Intel® SSE instructions to optimize discontinuities detection and color blending.


Video: CPU Based MLAA Implemention - Developer Walkthrough from Alexandre De Pereyra (click to view larger)


Read: MLAA: Efficiently Moving Antialiasing from the GPU to the CPU by Alexandre De Pereyra

Blog Post: CPU Morphological Antialiasing (MLAA) sample now live! - Blog post by Josh Doss
MLAA_Found_Edges_thumb.jpg
MLAA_MLAA_ZB_thumb.jpg

Viewing the found edges can be helpful when debugging MLAA.

The MLAA sample contains a zoom box to compare different anti-aliasing techniques.


System Requirements Additional Code Samples
  1. CPU: 2nd Generation Core i5 or better suggested
  2. GFX: DX10 capable graphics card
  3. OS: Microsoft Windows Vista* or Microsoft Windows 7*
  4. MEM: 2 GB of RAM or better
  5. Software:
    o DirectX SDK (June 2010 release or later)
    o Build with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008* w/SP1 or Visual Studio 2010*

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.



Intel Visual Adrenaline
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]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/mlaa/ Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/mlaa/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/mlaa/ Visual Computing Code & Downloads Game Development Game Engine Tasking Animation

Game Engine Tasking - Animation

Desktop gaming systems with 6 cores and 12 hardware threads have been on the market for some time now and 4 core CPUs are becoming increasingly common even on laptops. To give your customers the best experience on their particular platform we want to write game engine code that is core count independent. Tasking allows programs to benefit from scaling as core counts are increased; giving our users a great game experience consistent with their choice of hardware. In this sample we will convert a single-threaded animation system into a tasking animation system. There is small API the application uses for Tasking and internally that uses Intel TBB, but that usage could be replaced with whatever threading system was convenient.

VideoComingSoon.jpg

Video: Will be uploaded soon!  Please check back.

Read: Using Tasking to Scale Game Engine Systems

GDC Presentation: Yannis Minadakis, "Efficient scaling in a Task-Based Game Engine," Game Developers Conference, March 2011. (slides in PDF format)



GameEngineTaskingAnimnationScreenshot_small.jpg
The task-based animation sample in action. Toggle the “Enable Tasking” button to see the result of animating using tasking vs. animating on the main thread. Note that we achieve parallel animation on any number of cores by dividing the animation work into tasks.


System Requirements Additional Code Samples
  1. CPU: Dual core or better (Intel® Core™ i5 or better suggested)
  2. GFX: DX9c capable graphics card
  3. OS: Microsoft Windows Vista* or Microsoft Windows 7*
  4. MEM: 2 GB of RAM or better
  5. Software:
    o DirectX SDK (June 2010 release or later)
    o Build with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008* w/SP1 or Visual Studio 2010*

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
TBB Licensing:
The files in this directory tree (the “TBB Files”) are a subset of Intel(r) Threading Building Blocks that
are provided solely for the purpose of evaluating the graphics samples contained in this distribution/package.

The TBB Files are made available under an Evaluation License as defined in the End User License Agreement
found in this directory in the file tbbEULA.txt. Please see tbbEULA.txt for the specific terms, conditions
and restrictions of this Evaluation License. This Evaluation License is granted for an unspecified evaluation
time period, however, Intel may terminate the evaluation period at anytime, and solely for the purposes, and
under the conditions and restrictions, described in this README file and in the End User License Agreement (tbbEULA.txt).

The TBB Files provided here provide a method of static linking. Static linking is not supported by the
Intel(r) Threading Building Blocks product, but is provided here solely for evaluation purposes.

For commercial licenses of Intel(r) Threading Building Blocks, contact: Intel_Tools_Games@intel.com

TBB End User License Agreement


Intel Visual Adrenaline
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]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/game-engine-tasking-animation/ Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/game-engine-tasking-animation/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/game-engine-tasking-animation/ Visual Computing Code & Downloads Game Development GPU Detect Sample

GPU Detect

GPU Detect is a short sample demonstrates a way to detect the primary graphics hardware present in a system, and to initialize a game’s default fidelity presets based on the found graphics device using a simple API. The code download includes documentation and is meant to be used as a guideline, and should be adapted to the game’s specific needs.





GPUDetect_screencap.jpg



System Requirements Additional Code Samples
  1. GFX: DX9c capable graphics card
  2. OS: Microsoft Windows XP* or newer
  3. Software:
    o DirectX SDK (June 2010 release or later)
    o Build with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008* w/SP1 or Visual Studio 2010*

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.


Intel Visual Adrenaline
Developer Community
Intel® Software Partner Program
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]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/gpu-detect-sample/ Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/gpu-detect-sample/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/gpu-detect-sample/ Visual Computing Code & Downloads Game Development Shadow Explorer

Shadow Explorer

Shadow Explorer is a sample application, with source code, that allows developers to work with several shadowing techniques, examine the performance versus quality tradeoffs of each one, and discover which is best suited for their game. In this first version of Shadow Explorer, we include four algorithms for evaluation: simple shadow maps, percentage closer shadow maps, variance shadow maps and exponential variance shadow maps. Each method is optimized for performance and exposes several variables, which allow the developer to further refine the technique in real time. Additionally, two scenes are provided to enable the developer to explore the strengths of each technique on different types of geometry.


Updated 7/14/2011: EVSM updates to respond to developer feedback.
ShadowExplorer1_small.jpg
ShadowExlorer2_small.jpg
ShadowExplorer3_small.jpg

The Shadow Explorer configured to show Exponential Variance Shadow Maps with 5 cascades.

Visualizing the shadow map cascades within Shadow Explorer.

The light space and the cascades can be visualized concurrently as the user changes multiple shadow techniques and inputs in real time.


System Requirements Additional Code Samples
  1. CPU: Dual core or better (Intel® Core™ i5 or better suggested)
  2. GFX: DX9c capable graphics card
  3. OS: Microsoft Windows Vista* or Microsoft Windows 7*
  4. MEM: 2 GB of RAM or better
  5. Software:
    o DirectX SDK (June 2010 release or later)
    o Build with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008* w/SP1 or Visual Studio 2010*

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.


Intel Visual Adrenaline
Developer Community
Intel® Software Partner Program
Game On
Showcase


]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/shadowexplorer/ Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/shadowexplorer/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/shadowexplorer/ Visual Computing Code & Downloads Game Development Adaptive Transparency
aoit_left_small.jpg aoit_right_small.jpg

Transparency is a fundamental open problem in real-time rendering due to the difficulty of compositing in the right order an arbitrary number of transparent layers. The current situation in real-time applications is exemplified by the left image, where numerous objects are incorrectly composited when rendered with alpha-blending, the most popular algorithm for rendering transparent geometry. On the other hand, as shown by the right image, our algorithm can correctly composite all transparent layers while maintaining performance levels typical of real-time applications.



]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/adaptive-transparency/ Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/adaptive-transparency/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/adaptive-transparency/ Visual Computing Code & Downloads Game Development Announcing Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers 4.0

NOTE: Intel GPA 4.0 is no longer the latest release of Intel Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers (Intel® GPA). Please see the Intel GPA Home Page to download the latest release.

Thanks for using Intel GPA!

________________________________________________________________________________

Announcing Version 4.0 of Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers (Intel® GPA)

Intel® GPA is a suite of software tools that provides game developers with platform-level performance analysis tools to help optimize application performance. Version 4.0 adds significant new features to the product, based upon recommendations from game developers such as yourself.

If you're already a registered user, you can download Version 4.0 by browsing to the Intel Products Download Page. If this think link doesn't work or if you're a new user, download this latest version by browsing to the Intel GPA Home Page and selecting the "Download Now" button.


What's New

Version 4.0 of the Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers contains the following new features:

  • General
    • New workflows simplify analyzing games
    • Microsoft DirectX* 11 support allows more games to be analyzed and optimized with the product
    • Fully-configurable triggers to automatically capture frame or trace files (for example, "capture all frames that are slower than 20 FPS")
    • Screenshot thumbnails provided for frame capture files, providing a visual queue for which frame to analyze
    • New "how to" help videos assist both new users and seasoned veterans to more quickly take advantage of the new release
  • Intel® GPA System Analyzer Heads-Up Display (HUD)
    • The new HUD interface provides for an easier, more intuitive analysis when running on a single PC
    • Support for new GPU metrics when running on Intel® HD Graphics 2000/3000 hardware provides for an even more detailed analysis of your game's performance bottlenecks
  • Intel® GPA Frame Analyzer
    • Multiple Render Target (MRT) view support for games that utilize this feature
    • Vendor-specific texture types now supported
    • Support for new GPU metrics when running on Intel® HD Graphics 2000/3000 hardware provides for an even more detailed analysis of your game's performance bottlenecks
  • Intel® GPA Platform Analyzer (beta release)
    • The features of the Intel® GPA System Analyzer Platform View (originally released with Intel GPA 3.0) have now been implemented as a stand-alone application
    • A new, optimized tracing API makes it easier to add instrumentation to your own games and graphics applications.
  • Analyzing CPU and GPU workloads enabled by Microsoft Internet Explorer 9* (experimental feature)
    • Internet Explorer 9* supports hardware-accelerated graphics for content rendering, page composition, and desktop composition (see this article for more details). For those developing graphics-rich web content, Intel GPA is a "must have" tool for optimizing this content for your users.
    • Note: In order to enable Intel GPA profiling for the browser, you'll need to use an Internet Explorer 9* registry setting so that all your tabs open under the same iexplore.exe process (TabProcGrowth=0). See this article for details.
    • This feature first appeared in Intel GPA 4.0, Build 142660.
To start using the new workflow and features, "take the tour" of Intel GPA 4.0 by referring to the new Quick Start Guide that's installed with the product (access it through the Windows Start Menu for the Intel GPA product).

Want more info on Intel GPA? Check out either the Intel GPA Home Page, the Intel GPA FAQ, or the Intel GPA Knowledge Base articles.


Screen Shots of Intel GPA 4.0 in Action


  • Intel® GPA System Analyzer Heads-Up Display (HUD)
GPA4+HUD.png
  • Intel® GPA Frame Analyzer
GPA4+FrameAnalyzer.png
  • Intel® GPA Platform Analyzer
GPA4+PlatformAnalyzer.png


Product Overview

Intel® GPA, Version 4.0, contains the following components:

  • Intel® GPA System Analyzer HUD (Heads-Up Display) - displays application performance metrics in real time, overlaid on your Microsoft DirectX* application. This tool enables you to understand the high-level performance profile of your graphics application, in order to determine whether your application is CPU bound or GPU bound. If your application is GPU bound, you can use a keyboard shortcuts to capture a GPU frame for detailed analysis by the Intel® GPA Frame Analyzer. If your application is CPU-bound, you can use a keyboard shortcut to capture a trace file for detailed analysis by the Intel® GPA Platform Analyzer. Press Ctrl-F1 in the HUD to see the keyboard shortcut list.
  • Intel® GPA Frame Analyzer - provides a detailed view of a captured frame file, which contains all Microsoft DirectX* context used to render the selected 3D frame, as well as per-draw call/region GPU metrics. This tool enables you to understand the performance of your application at the frame level, render target level, and drawcall level. It enables detailed analysis and "what if" optimization experiments without the need to recompile or rebuild your application.
  • Intel® GPA Platform Analyzer (beta release) - visualizes the execution profile of the tasks in your code on the heterogeneous (CPU+GPU) PC platform over time. This tool collects trace data during the application run to provide detailed analysis of how your code executes across all threads, and correlates the CPU work with work being done on the GPU. The tool automatically aligns clocks across all cores in the entire system so that you can analyze CPU-based workloads together with GPU-based workloads on the timeline.
  • Intel® GPA Monitor - connects Intel® GPA to your application (locally or on a remote computer), and enables you to configure the HUD mode and keyboard shortcuts.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. ]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/announcing-gpa-4dot0/ Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:00:00 -0800 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/announcing-gpa-4dot0/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/announcing-gpa-4dot0/ Tools Visual Computing Onloaded Shadows

Onloaded Shadows

Onloaded Shadows is a technique by which shadow maps can be calculated asynchronously on the CPU. By using cascades, the shadow map for objects near the camera are calculated every frame on the GPU, but the shadow maps for objects in the second cascade and beyond are calculated less often on the CPU. This allows for better work balancing across the CPU and GPU.
OnloadedShadowsWeb1_small.jpg
OnloadedShadowsWeb2_small.jpg
OnloadedShadowsWeb3_small.jpg

Screenshot of the application with Onloaded Shadows technique.

Screenshot of the sample from the light's view with cascades visualized.

Screenshot of the sample upon start up.  Shadows further from the camera are calculated on the CPU asynchronously.


System Requirements Additional Code Samples
  1. CPU: Dual core or better (Intel® Core™ i5 or better suggested)
  2. GFX: DX9c capable graphics card
  3. OS: Microsoft Windows Vista* or Microsoft Windows 7*
  4. MEM: 2 GB of RAM or better
  5. Software:
    o DirectX SDK (June 2010 release or later)
    o Build with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008* w/SP1 or Visual Studio 2010*

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.


Intel Visual Adrenaline
Developer Community
Intel® Software Partner Program
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]]> http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/onloaded-shadows/ Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/onloaded-shadows/#comments http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/onloaded-shadows/ Visual Computing Code & Downloads Game Development