HLSL How can one pass data between shaders / read existing colour value?

Question

I have 2 HLSL ps2.0 shaders. Simplified, they are:

Shader 1

• Reads texture
• Outputs colour value based on this texture

Shader 2

• Problem: Need to read in the colour from Shader 1
• Outputs the final colour which is a function of the input colour

(They need to be different shaders as I've reached the maximum vertex-shader outputs for 1 shader)

---

My problem is I cannot work out how Shader 2 can access the existing fragment/pixel colour.

Knowing how to do any of these things with HLSL would solve my problem;

• Read existing pixel colour (I don't think this is possible)
• Pass result of Shader 1 to Shader 2 as a float4
• Render result of Shader 1 as a texture in memory, and have Shader 2 read that in

Answer 1

Compositor scripts seem to be only for fullscreen (or more accurately, full viewport) effects.

Render-to-texture is the way to go. It's not necessarily accomplished with compositor scripts.

This thread of mine on the Ogre forums goes into more detail;

   Ogre::Root r(...);
   Ogre::RenderWindow* window = r.createRenderWindow(...);
   //...
   Ogre::SceneManager* sm = r.createSceneManager(Ogre::ST_GENERIC, "sm");
   //...

   //Main scene camera
   Ogre::Camera* c = sm->createCamera("camera");
   {
       c->setNearClipDistance(5);
       Ogre::Viewport* v = window->addViewport(c);
       v->setBackgroundColour (Ogre::ColourValue(0, 0, 0));
       c->setAspectRatio (static_cast<double> (v->getActualWidth ()) / v->getActualHeight ());
   }

   //RTT
   Ogre::TexturePtr ptrTexture = Ogre::TextureManager::getSingleton().createManual(
       "RttTex",
       Ogre::ResourceGroupManager::DEFAULT_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME,
       Ogre::TEX_TYPE_2D,
       512,//window->getWidth(),
       512,//window->getHeight(),
       0, //MIP_DEFAULT?
       Ogre::PF_R8G8B8,
       Ogre::TU_RENDERTARGET,
       0
   );
   Ogre::RenderTexture* renderTexture = ptrTexture->getBuffer()->getRenderTarget();
   renderTexture->setAutoUpdated(true);

   //Create material to use with rect
   {
       //You should replace this with the material you wish to render to texture
       //It can be defined in c++ (as this is) or in a material script
       Ogre::MaterialPtr material = Ogre::MaterialManager::getSingleton().create("material", Ogre::ResourceGroupManager::DEFAULT_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME);
       Ogre::Technique* tech = material->createTechnique();
       tech->createPass();
       material->getTechnique(0)->getPass(0)->setLightingEnabled(false);
       material->getTechnique(0)->getPass(0)->setDepthCheckEnabled(false);
       material->getTechnique(0)->getPass(0)->createTextureUnitState("my_square_texture.dds");
   }

   //Create rect2D in yz plane to which we will draw our textures
   //Most likely you'll wish to reposition the node so it's offscreen
   const static float r_dimension = 1000.0;
   Ogre::SceneNode* rect_node = sm->getRootSceneNode()->createChildSceneNode("rect_node");
   {
       Ogre::ManualObject *rect = sm->createManualObject("rect");
       rect->begin("material", Ogre::RenderOperation::OT_TRIANGLE_FAN);
       rect->position(0, r_dimension, r_dimension);
       rect->textureCoord(0,0);
       rect->normal(0, 1, 0);
       rect->position(0, -r_dimension, r_dimension);
       rect->textureCoord(0,1);
       rect->normal(0, 1, 0);
       rect->position(0, -r_dimension, -r_dimension);
       rect->textureCoord(1,1);
       rect->normal(0, 1, 0);
       rect->position(0, r_dimension, -r_dimension);
       rect->textureCoord(1,0);
       rect->normal(0, 1, 0);
       rect->end();
       rect_node->attachObject(rect);
   }

   //Create camera, make it look at this rect2D
   Ogre::Camera* rtt_cam = sm->createCamera("rtt_cam");

   //Use same FOV as main camera
   Ogre::Radian fov_y = c->getFOVy();
   rtt_cam->setFOVy(fov_y);

   //Position the camera such that the texture fills the viewpoint
   {
       //Angle from normal (ie, "vector origin->camera") to to top of tecture is FOV/2
       //Distance origin to top of texture is r_dimension
       double cam_to_rect_distance = r_dimension/tan((fov_y.valueRadians())/2);
       rtt_cam->setPosition(cam_to_rect_distance, 0, 0);
       rtt_cam->lookAt(rect_node->getPosition());
   }

   //Debug using main window
   //window->addViewport(rtt_cam);

   //Write to RTT
   Ogre::Viewport* v = renderTexture->addViewport(rtt_cam);

   v->setClearEveryFrame(true); //You may wish to set this to false and render only when your material updates/changes
   v->setBackgroundColour(Ogre::ColourValue::Blue); //Debug colour. If we see blue border in RTT our cam position is wrong.
   v->setOverlaysEnabled(false); //We don't want overlays to show up on the RTT

   //TEMP Create debug screen (lifted from Ogre Tutorial 7)
   //Draws the result of RTT onscreen picture-in-picture
   {
       Ogre::Rectangle2D *miniScreen = new Ogre::Rectangle2D(true);
       miniScreen->setCorners(0.5f, -0.5f, 1.0f, -1.0f);
       //miniScreen->setBoundingBox(Ogre::AxisAlignedBox(-100000.0f * Ogre::Vector3::UNIT_SCALE, 100000.0f * Ogre::Vector3::UNIT_SCALE));
       Ogre::SceneNode* miniScreenNode = sm->getRootSceneNode()->createChildSceneNode("MiniScreenNode");
       miniScreenNode->attachObject(miniScreen);

       //Create material to read result of Rtt, purely for debug purposes
       Ogre::MaterialPtr screenMaterial = Ogre::MaterialManager::getSingleton().create("ScreenMatt", Ogre::ResourceGroupManager::DEFAULT_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME);
       Ogre::Technique* screenTechnique = screenMaterial->createTechnique();
       screenTechnique->createPass();
       screenMaterial->getTechnique(0)->getPass(0)->setLightingEnabled(false);
       screenMaterial->getTechnique(0)->getPass(0)->createTextureUnitState("RttTex");

       miniScreen->setMaterial("ScreenMatt");

       //TODO ideally we'd have render target listeners call setVisible(false) on pre update and  setVisible(true) post update,
       //so we don't get the infinite line picture-in-picture-in-picture in the preview window.
   }

   //Now you can bind your shader's material script to the rtt
{
    Ogre::MaterialPtr material = Ogre::MaterialManager::getSingleton().getByName("your_material_name");
    Ogre::Technique *technique = material->getTechnique(0);
    Ogre::Pass *pass = technique->getPass(0);
    Ogre::TextureUnitState *tunit = pass->getTextureUnitState("your_materials_tunit_name");
    tunit->setTextureName("Rtt");
}

   //...

   while (! window->isClosed ()) {
       //...
       r.renderOneFrame();
   }

Answer 2

Option 3:

Your HLSL code will be simple, the second shader will just sample from a texture2D and und that for it's calculations.

You will need to draw to a render target with your first shader, then you can bind your render target to a texture, and access it from the second shader as if it were any other texture2D. Note that you can't read from a render target that is currently set, so set back to the framebuffer before your second pass.

Also, care to explain how you've managed to reach the limit on vertex shader outputs? I'm curious :P.

Answer 3

To do what you want, you can switch render targets between execution of shader1 and shader2. You output your first shader to a texture and then you pass this texture to your second shader.

This is done in Ogre with Compositor scripts and target.