VISUAL SHADER DESIGNER

• US 20130063460A1
• Filed: 09/08/2011
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Marison, Scott, Agsen, Mohsen, Duplessis, Jean-Pierre, Pagan, Tito
• Application Number:
  US13/227,498
• Publication Number:
  US 20130063460A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/582
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures

Abstract

An integrated development environment includes a visual shader designer engine that enables a user to create a pixel shader embodied as a directed acyclic graph. The directed acyclic graph contains nodes, where each node is associated with an operation that is used to generate a color characteristic of a final rendered model. The visual shader designer engine displays a rendered image at each node that is the result of the node'"'"'s operation during development of the directed acyclic graph. An error texture is rendered in a node when an erroneous condition is detected in rendering a node'"'"'s operations.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

representing a first shader as a directed graph having a plurality of nodes, each node associated with an operation or value configured to produce a graphic effect; and

generating a rendered view in each node, the rendered view illustrating application of an operation associated with a node.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the generating step further comprising:

for each node, producing a first set of programmable instructions that implement an operation associated with a node, the first set of programmable instructions including programmable instructions associated with each input to the node and programmable instructions associated with a node.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, the generating step further comprising:

transforming the first set of programmable instructions into a second set of programmable instructions, the second set of programmable instructions generating the rendered view.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the second set of programmable instructions is executed on a graphics processing unit.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, the generating step further comprising:

compiling the first set of programmable instructions into a second set of programmable instructions;

detecting an error in compilation of the first set of programmable instructions; and

executing a second shader to render an error texture in a node associated with the first set of programmable instructions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

executing the second set of programmable instructions;

detecting an error in execution of the second set of programmable instructions; and

executing a second shader to render an error texture in a node associated with the second set of programmable instructions.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the first set of programmable instructions is generated on a processor that is different from the graphics processing unit.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the rendered view is associated with a color characteristic.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first shader is a pixel shader.

10. A computer-readable storage medium storing thereon processor-executable instructions, comprising:

an editor and a visual shader designer engine, the editor having processor-executable instructions that when executed generate a directed acyclic graph, the directed acyclic graph having a plurality of nodes, each node containing a first set of executable instructions associated with performing an operation on a graphic object, the visual shader designer engine having processor-executable instructions that when executed traverses each node in the directed acyclic graph in a prescribed order to generate a rendered graphic image, in each node.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising a shader language compiler having processor-executable instructions that when executed transforms the first set of execution instructions into a final set of executable instructions, the final set of executable instructions executed by a graphics processor and generating the rendered graphic image in each node.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the directed acyclic graph having a terminal node, the terminal node being a node at which all routes in the directed acyclic graph terminate, the terminal node associated with a complete set of executable instructions forming a pixel shader.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising a second shader for rendering an error texture in a node affected by an erroneous condition.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising a shader language code library containing code fragments associated with operations performed in a node, the editor having processor-executable instructions to generate shader language code in each node.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the visual shader designer engine having processor-executable instructions that when executed aggregates the first set of executable instructions in a node to include executable instructions associated with inputs to a node and executable instructions associated with a node.

16. A system, comprising:

a first processor and a first memory, the first memory having a visual shader designer engine, the visual shader designer engine having instructions that when executed on the first processor generates a final set of instructions for each node in a directed acyclic graph using operations and inputs associated with a node; and

a graphics processor that executes the final set of instructions received from the visual shader designer engine and renders a graphic image resulting from execution of the final set of instructions in each node.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each node in the directed acyclic graph has a rendered view area for displaying the rendered graphic image resulting from execution of the final set of instructions associated with a node.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the final set of instructions associated with a node include instructions associated with a node and instructions associated with inputs to a node.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the directed acyclic graph has a terminal node, the terminal node associated with an aggregated set of instructions formed from combining the final instructions of each node, the aggregated set of instructions representing a pixel shader.

20. The system of claim 16, the first memory having a second shader, the second shader having instructions that when executed on the graphics processor renders a error texture in each node affected by an erroneous condition resulting from execution of the final set of instructions associated with a node.