gamedevlists-consoles

[GD-Consoles] Cg, HLSL, ?

[Brett B. \(GameBrains\) <res...@ga...>]

Since there is another thread running in the algo list on shaders, and =
most of the people here seem to be there too, I wanted to ask about how =
people are handling shaders for multi-platform console work.  We have a =
nice development environment now that builds our runtime databases, but =
implementing special effects on consoles like the PS2 is a headache.  We =
were considering writing a compiler for either HLSL or Cg that could =
then have a platform-specific backend to solve the problem.  It seems =
nVidia will be releasing a reference implementation of the Cg compiler =
that has a simple backend reporting tool and so we are leaning that =
direction at the moment.  Does this even seem viable to anyone?  It's =
not that we don't want to take advantage of each console's capabilities, =
but rather it is hard to do right now because artists don't have enough =
tools to do so, but with a more generic approach using Cg we could =
preview the stuff in Max that would roughly show the final effect.  How =
are other people getting special effects implemented on consoles?
Thanks,
Brett Bibby
GameBrains

RE: [GD-Consoles] Cg, HLSL, ?

[Jamie F. <ja...@qu...>]

the only really viable solution i've heard of is to give the artists access
to a library of shaders, and reimplement them per platform. not great, but
it works.

jamie


-----Original Message-----
From: gam...@li...
[mailto:gam...@li...]On Behalf Of
Brett Bibby (GameBrains)
Sent: 14 August 2002 02:29
To: gam...@li...
Subject: [GD-Consoles] Cg, HLSL, ?


Since there is another thread running in the algo list on shaders, and most
of the people here seem to be there too, I wanted to ask about how people
are handling shaders for multi-platform console work.  We have a nice
development environment now that builds our runtime databases, but
implementing special effects on consoles like the PS2 is a headache.  We
were considering writing a compiler for either HLSL or Cg that could then
have a platform-specific backend to solve the problem.  It seems nVidia will
be releasing a reference implementation of the Cg compiler that has a simple
backend reporting tool and so we are leaning that direction at the moment.
Does this even seem viable to anyone?  It's not that we don't want to take
advantage of each console's capabilities, but rather it is hard to do right
now because artists don't have enough tools to do so, but with a more
generic approach using Cg we could preview the stuff in Max that would
roughly show the final effect.  How are other people getting special effects
implemented on consoles?
Thanks,
Brett Bibby
GameBrains



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Re: [GD-Consoles] Cg, HLSL, ?

[Javier A. <ja...@py...>]

Jamie Fowlston <ja...@qu...> wrote:

> the only really viable solution i've heard of is to give the artists
> access to a library of shaders, and reimplement them per platform.
> not great, but it works.

I agree. Could you people guesstimate the number of different material /
shader types used in their games? I would assume at most a few dozens (with
many of them being variations of a few). Anything under 40 is clearly a job
for hand-crafting them. Even if you have an automated system, you will
definitely leave the option to hand-optimize the most used (or less optimal
when automated) ones.

  Javier Arevalo
  Pyro Studios