Vertex/pixel shaders

Hi,

Now I know what these things do (I think) - A vertex shader modifies the properties of the vertex on a per-vertex basis using the GPU instead of the CPU. Pixel shaders do per-pixel operations that modify the final color of the pixel for example for complex lighting or texturing algorithms again on the GPU.

(If these are wrong please correct me)

I would love someone to point me to some REALLY simple example programs (with source) that’ll show me how to use these. Just to complicate matters futher I have an ATI Radeon 8500 and therefore can’t run code that uses the nVIDIA specific extensions.

Thanks for any help,

Stephen

Go at www.ati.com. Check their developper section. They have everything you need to get you started.

Have fun.

Originally posted by stephenwilley:
[b]Hi,

Now I know what these things do (I think) - A vertex shader modifies the properties of the vertex on a per-vertex basis using the GPU instead of the CPU. Pixel shaders do per-pixel operations that modify the final color of the pixel for example for complex lighting or texturing algorithms again on the GPU.

(If these are wrong please correct me)

I would love someone to point me to some REALLY simple example programs (with source) that’ll show me how to use these. Just to complicate matters futher I have an ATI Radeon 8500 and therefore can’t run code that uses the nVIDIA specific extensions.

Thanks for any help,

Stephen [/b]

You can find a lot of information here (sample apps and white papers describing shaders): www.ati.com/developer

More specifically, there is an OpenGL sample app using vertex & fragment shaders here: http://www.ati.com/na/pages/resource_centre/dev_rel/R8500PointlightShader.html

That sample might be a little complex for someone just starting out, there’s a very simple vertex shader example here: http://www.ati.com/na/pages/resource_centre/dev_rel/SimpleVertexShader.html