FX effects

#1 Writting .fx files is a little complicated and requires some knowledge of shader programming. I like to use free tools like RenderMonkey and FXComposer to create the shaders and then classes, such as PostProcessor or GenericMaterial to map them. I did a write up about them a few months ago on the forums, but it might be out of date by now. Keep in mind that writting .fx files is outside the scope of Torque X - I had to learn everything by book (in my case: www.amazon.com/Shaders-Programmers-Artists-Premier-Development/dp/1592000924/ref... ).

John K.

#2 Thanks for the quick reply John, Sorry i wasnt very clear with what im trying to do. Ive already written an effect and got it working nicley in XNA but when i try to get it working using the same technique using TX it dosent show up. Is there anything inbuilt within TX to support custom .fx files?

Henry

edit: Sorry, managed to miss what you said about using postprocess and genericmaterial, looking into it now :) Thanks again.

#3 Henry, is this a fullscreen post-process effect, or a new material effect that you are applying to a specifi texture within the scene?

John K.

#4 The one im currently trying to work in is a full screen post-process effect but i will be needing to do both. Ive tryed looking through the TX documentation and there dosent seem to be anything there, am i looking in the wrong place or is there a lack of documentation for it?

Henry

#5 Anyone have any pointers on how to do it?

Henry

#6 No one?

#7 Sorry, Henry... I've been jumping around a bit... The best example for implementing a full screen post effect is to look at the FPSDemo project. Check out inputmap setup that calls the Bloom post effect. The function that does this is pretty small and easy to follow. You can also see how it is mapped to the BloomShader.fx file too. But as you've discovered, there's no documentation on the subject yet.

John K.

#8 Ah thank you very much John, I hadnt thought of looking at the FPS demo. If i have much luck with it ill stick some stuff up on the TDN.

Henry

#9 Ive been trying to add shaders onto the effects which in the FPS demo are just using the built in bloom stuff.
Ive been doing :

_explosionPostProcessor = new GarageGames.Torque.Materials.PostProcessor();
material.BlendAmount = 0.4f;

Which just seems to turn the screen purple, when i try using material.EffectFilename to assign a .fx effect it dosent seem to work. Am i doing it right?

Henry

#10 Anyone else around who knows anything about shader in TX2D ?
Its passed off as a main feature but there isnt mention of it anywhere in the docs, weird.

Anyone with even a hint would be usefull at this point.

Henry

#11 I'm just about to try. I'll let you know what happens.

#12 I was able to get this work by copy and pasting some code from the FPS into the Platformer Kit Demo. It functions, but there is a strange separation in the full screen quad; you can see a lower resolution on the upper left fullscreen polygon, while the lower right seems fine.


Does anyone know why this is happening? How do we get the quad to draw the same resolution on both polygons?