Why reinvent the wheel? There're some handy little functions for the everyday HLSL writer. Please add your snippets in this wiki page.

• General snippets
• get clipping planes of a Perspective Projection
• VertexShader snippets
• apply rotation to vertices via texture
• Render to Texture/UV (useful for e.g. texture baking)
• PixelShader snippets for Image processing
• invert
• contrast
• black&white
• lumakey
• scene alpha
• working alpha channel in 3d
• DX11 Set DepthBuffer
• DX11 Access TextureArray
• Will the real texture array please stand up
• Set Output-TextureFormat for DX11-TXF-Shader
• Defines (or pre-processor directives)
• DX11: Define from vvvv

General snippets

get clipping planes of a Perspective Projection

float4x4 tPI: PROJECTIONINVERSE;
float FarPlane = 1 / (tPI[2][3] + tPI[3][3]);
float NearPlane = 1 / distance(tPI[2][3], tPI[3][3]);

VertexShader snippets

apply rotation to vertices via texture

rotation function:

float4x4 Vrotate(float rotX, 
         float rotY, 
         float rotZ)
  {
   rotX *= TwoPi;
   rotY *= TwoPi;
   rotZ *= TwoPi;
   float sx = sin(rotX);
   float cx = cos(rotX);
   float sy = sin(rotY);
   float cy = cos(rotY);
   float sz = sin(rotZ);
   float cz = cos(rotZ);
 
   return float4x4( cz*cy+sz*sx*sy, sz*cx, cz*-sy+sz*sx*cy, 0,
                   -sz*cy+cz*sx*sy, cz*cx, sz*sy+cz*sx*cy , 0,
                    cx * sy       ,-sx   , cx * cy        , 0,
                    0             , 0    , 0              , 1);
  }

use the function like this:

PosO = mul(PosO, Vrotate(Sampler.r, Sampler.g, Sampler.b));
NormO = mul(NormO, Vrotate(Sampler.r, Sampler.g, Sampler.b));

Sampler.rgb are the corresponding values from the texture

Render to Texture/UV (useful for e.g. texture baking)

Calculate screenspace coordinates based on UV instead of object space and pass it to PS

Out.Pos = float4((TexCd.xy-0.5)*2*float2(1,-1),0,1);

PixelShader snippets for Image processing

invert

rgb-inversion

col.rgb = 1 - col.rgb;

contrast

col.rgb = ((col.rgb - 0.5) * var) + 0.5;

if var > 1, the contrast is greater. var = 0 gives a grey picture
The 0.5 can be replaced with a variable to give a gamma or centre
point for the contrast as well, for more fine tuning...

black&white

const float4 lumcoeff = {0.299, 0.587, 0.114, 0};
col = dot(col, lumcoeff);

the dot product of the color (col) and the luminace coefficients results in a correct b&w image

lumakey

const float4 lumcoeff = {0.299, 0.587, 0.114, 0};
float luma = length(dot(col, lumcoeff));
col.a = step(var, luma);

var is the keying amount. the rest works like the b&w conversion.

scene alpha

return(tex2D(Samp, float2(IN.TexCd.xy)).wwww);

Texture input must be in A8R8G8B8 format.

working alpha channel in 3d

needs 2 passes so connect an iobox with 2 rows to the pass pin and fill it with 0,1

technique workingalpha
{
    pass P0
    {
        VertexShader = compile vs_1_0 VS();
        PixelShader  = compile ps_2_0 PS();
        AlphaBlendEnable = false;
 
        AlphaTestEnable = true;
        AlphaFunc = Greater;
        AlphaRef = 245;
 
        ZEnable = true;
        ZWriteEnable = true;
 
        CullMode = None;
    }
    pass P1
    {
        VertexShader = compile vs_1_0 VS();
        PixelShader  = compile ps_2_0 PS();
        AlphaBlendEnable = true;
        SrcBlend = SrcAlpha;
        DestBlend = InvSrcAlpha;
 
        AlphaTestEnable = true;
        AlphaFunc = LessEqual;
        AlphaRef = 245;
 
        ZEnable = true;
        ZWriteEnable = false;
 
        CullMode = None;
    }
}

DX11 Set DepthBuffer

Put this up near the start of your shader
DepthStencilState DisableDepth
{

    DepthEnable = FALSE;
    DepthWriteMask = ZERO;
    DepthFunc = LESS_EQUAL;

    StencilEnable  = FALSE;

};

and add this when you create the pass
and SetVertexShader etc
SetDepthStencilState( DisableDepth, 0 );

DX11 Access TextureArray

// declare array of N textures
Texture2D MyTextureArray[N];

// sample texture of index I from array (0 to N-1)
MyTextureArray[I].Sample(MySampler, UV);

Will the real texture array please stand up

note that the above is an array of textures- which is NOT the same thing as a actual texture array! Example of that below:

//Control Texture Array
bool useControlMap;
Texture2DArray cTex <string uiname="Texture";>;
SamplerState sam //can be set in vvvv
{

    Filter = MIN_MAG_MIP_LINEAR; 
    AddressU = Wrap;
    AddressV = Wrap;

};

float controlTexSample(float2 uv, float iid)
{
float control = 1;
if (useControlMap)
{
uint d,textureCount;
cTex.GetDimensions(d,d,textureCount);
float3 coords = float3(uv, iid % textureCount); //make sure Instance ID buffer is in floats
control *= cTex.SampleLevel(sam,coords,0).r;
}
return control;
}

Set Output-TextureFormat for DX11-TXF-Shader

pass P0 <string format="R32G32B32A32_float";>
    {SetPixelShader(CompileShader(ps_4_0,fCOLOR()));}

Defines (or pre-processor directives)

Use pre-processors as in other C inspired languages. These will actually transform the text of your code before compilation.

#define MYDEFINE 4
float MyFunc()
{
    return MYDEFINE;
}
// result: 4

Conditional:

#define MYCONDITION 2
float MyFunc()
{
#if MYCONDITION==2
    return 2;
#else
    return 0;
#endif
}
// result: 2

Check if thing is defined:

#define MYCONDITION 2
float MyFunc()
{
#if defined(MYCONDITION)
    return 2;
#else
    return 0;
#endif
}
// result: 2

DX11: Define from vvvv

All shader nodes in DX11 (layers, tfx and gfx) have a hidden pin called "Defines" which awaits a spread of string formatted like that:

DEFINENAME=stuff

Every time you change the Defines spread shader is recompiled. Example tricks:

Change tfx pass format without changing the code:

// define a default value to avoid compilation errors
#if !defined(PASSFORMAT)
#define PASSFORMAT "R8_UNorm"
#endif
 
...
 
pass P0 <string format=PASSFORMAT;>
    {SetPixelShader(CompileShader(ps_4_0,fCOLOR()));}

from vvvv:

PASSFORMAT="R16G16B16A16_Float"