richmondx/shadowfx

DirectX 11 and 12 library that provides a scalable and GCN-optimized solution for deferred shadow filtering

AMD ShadowFX

The ShadowFX library provides a scalable and GCN-optimized solution for deferred shadow filtering. Currently the library supports uniform and contact hardening shadow (CHS) kernels.

Version 2.0 of the library now supports both DirectX® 11 and DirectX® 12. The ShadowFX API is unified across D3D11 and D3D12, allowing an easy transition to D3D12. Samples are provided for both D3D11 and D3D12 versions.

The library supports a range of different options:

• Shadow map packing into an atlas or a texture array
• Processing up to 6 shadow maps for a union of lights, cascaded light, or a cube light
• Poisson-distributed and regular sampling patterns

The ShadowFX library can also serve as a sandbox for experiments with other shadow filtering techniques.

Prerequisites for DirectX 11

• AMD Radeon™ GCN-based GPU (HD 7000 series or newer)
  • Or other DirectX® 11 compatible discrete GPU with Shader Model 5 support
• 64-bit Windows® 7 (SP1 with the Platform Update), Windows® 8.1, or Windows® 10
• Visual Studio® 2012, Visual Studio® 2013, or Visual Studio® 2015

Prerequisites for DirectX 12

• AMD Radeon™ GCN-based GPU (HD 7000 series or newer)
  • Or other DirectX® 12 compatible discrete GPU with Shader Model 5 support
• 64-bit Windows® 10
• Visual Studio® 2015

Getting started

• For DirectX 11, Visual Studio solutions for VS2012, VS2013, and VS2015 can be found in the amd_shadowfx11_sample\build directory.
• For DirectX 12, a Visual Studio solution for VS2015 can be found in the amd_shadowfx12_sample\build directory.
• There are also solutions for just the core library in the amd_shadowfx\build directory.
• Documentation is located in the amd_shadowfx\doc directory.

Learn More

• Related blog posts on GPUOpen

Premake

The Visual Studio solutions and projects in this repo were generated with Premake. If you need to regenerate the Visual Studio files, double-click on gpuopen_shadowfx_update_vs_files.bat in the premake directory.

This version of Premake has been modified from the stock version to use the property sheet technique for the Windows SDK from this Visual C++ Team blog post. The technique was originally described for using the Windows 8.0 SDK with Visual Studio 2010, but it applies more generally to using newer versions of the Windows SDK with older versions of Visual Studio.

The default SDK for a particular version of Visual Studio (for 2012 or higher) is installed as part of Visual Studio installation. This default (Windows 8.0 SDK for Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 8.1 SDK for Visual Studio 2013) will be used if newer SDKs do not exist on the user's machine. However, the projects generated with this version of Premake will use the next higher SDK (Windows 8.1 SDK for Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 10 SDK with Visual Studio 2013), if the newer SDKs exist on the user's machine.

For Visual Studio 2015, this version of Premake adds the WindowsTargetPlatformVersion element to the project file to specify which version of the Windows SDK will be used. To change WindowsTargetPlatformVersion for Visual Studio 2015, change the value for _AMD_WIN_SDK_VERSION (for DirectX 11) or _AMD_WIN_SDK_VERSION_FOR_D3D12 (for DirectX 12) in premake\amd_premake_util.lua and regenerate the Visual Studio files.

Third-Party Software

• DXUT is distributed under the terms of the MIT License. See framework\d3d11\dxut\MIT.txt.
• Premake is distributed under the terms of the BSD License. See premake\LICENSE.txt.
• The Open Asset Import Library (assimp) is distributed under the terms of the BSD License. See third_party\assimp\LICENSE.

DXUT and Assimp are only used by the samples, not the core library. Only first-party software (specifically amd_shadowfx and amd_lib) is needed to build the ShadowFX library.

Attribution

• AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Radeon, Crossfire, and combinations thereof are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
• Microsoft, DirectX, Visual Studio, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.