Complex Shader and how to use it

[ffomega]

Can someone tell me how to use the complex shaders? I installed them and there doesn't appear to be any changes to the program (objects, etc).

I am hoping it will allow me to do some color tricks with pixels that 'replace object' never allowed me to do before, and much faster. I would have tried using the HWA, but my application uses animation objects, which apparently do not work in HWA.

[Stephen]

Shaders only work in HWA. They are located with the other ink effects.

[ffomega]

Okay then could the animation object be added to HWA? I'd hate to change all my code and objects just to use the HWA. I am trying to avoid making anymore object in the application, which would slow it down the more I add. I figure if I can use the shaders to alter the colors of parts of an object (using the animation object), then I wouldn't have to make separate active objects to use for alphas.

[Pixelthief]

If your project is graphically intensive you should probably be using HWA. Shader effects can easily be used to replace or alter colors in objects, but HWA allows this even easier by simply adjusting the RGB coefficient much like if you put a large semitransparent object of that color on top of it)

"Pixel Shaders" are just GPU scripts for direct X 9 that run once per pixel in the image. Each pixel in the output image will have its color adjusted- you can directly modify the color value or have it choose a different input location on the image to draw from. For example a simple shader might just invert the input "x" location, so each pixel would draw from the opposite side, causing the image to be horizontally flipped.


When run in HWA the amount of objects you can have on screen will be far higher so you won't get 'slowed down by adding more objects' nearly as much.