Adding a post processing plugin like "SweetFX"

[Anonymous]

What's the methodology for adding an image post processing plugin like "SweetFX", would I need source code access?

[__ben__ · Accepted solution]

No, you don't need source code to implement your own shader post-processing effects! One of the advantages of Stingray's data-driven workflow is that even the per-frame rendering flow is controlled by configuration files. I've written a brief tutorial on this and will post it to a blog next week. In the meantime, take a look at these files: binaries\core\stingray_renderer\renderer.render_config Search for: { resource_generator="post_processing" profiling_scope="post_processing" } If you need to define another buffer in video memory for your effect, go to the "global resources" section and add a line similar to: { name="postfxdemo_scratch" type="render_target" depends_on="output_target" w_scale=1 h_scale=1 format="R8G8B8A8" } Shader source code can be found in core/stingray_renderer/shader_libraries. When testing out new ideas I'll usually add new shaders to development.shader_source. This is not anywhere near a complete set of instructions. I'll follow up later with a link to a video and/or blog post. Thanks, Ben

[Anonymous]

Awesome, please post a link in this thread when its ready!

[__ben__ · Accepted solution]

Our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0fIe6XV1PjilADTei9JMOA The video is called "Stingray Render Config Tutorial." Please post back here if you have any questions after watching the video.

[Anonymous]

Is there a standard methodology for adding an HLSL shader?  I followed the step by step, but it really only works with the example you gave, its not clear to me how I could take a shader from a library, like Nvidia's and add it to my project.  Also, the syntax in the shader files given by stingray seems to be a little different in nature than HLSL code, mainly the #define parts.  What syntactical changes would I need to make to standard HLSL code to make it compatible with Stingray?

[__ben__]

Good question. I don't have a list of differences. If you post a relatively simple shader demonstrating the differences I'll take a look at it and note required changes.

[Anonymous]

This one is from SweetFX, its a toon shader

/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						Cartoon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

#ifndef CartoonEdgeSlope //for backwards compatiblity with settings preset from earlier versions of SweetFX
  #define CartoonEdgeSlope 1.5 
#endif

float4 CartoonPass( float4 colorInput, float2 Tex )
{
  float3 CoefLuma2 = float3(0.2126, 0.7152, 0.0722);  //Values to calculate luma with
  
  float diff1 = dot(CoefLuma2,myTex2D(s0, Tex + pixel).rgb);
  diff1 = dot(float4(CoefLuma2,-1.0),float4(myTex2D(s0, Tex - pixel).rgb , diff1));
  
  float diff2 = dot(CoefLuma2,myTex2D(s0, Tex +float2(pixel.x,-pixel.y)).rgb);
  diff2 = dot(float4(CoefLuma2,-1.0),float4(myTex2D(s0, Tex +float2(-pixel.x,pixel.y)).rgb , diff2));
    
  float edge = dot(float2(diff1,diff2),float2(diff1,diff2));
  
  colorInput.rgb =  pow(edge,CartoonEdgeSlope) * -CartoonPower + colorInput.rgb;
	
  return saturate(colorInput);
}

float3 CartoonWrap(float4 position : SV_Position, float2 texcoord : TEXCOORD0) : SV_Target
{
  float4 color = myTex2D(s0, texcoord);
  
	color = CartoonPass(color,texcoord);
	
	#ifdef Shared_Piggyback_Cartoon
    color.rgb = SharedPass(texcoord, float4(color.rgbb)).rgb;
	#endif
	
	return color.rgb;
}

One thing I did notice is that the entire shader would have to be contained in 

toonShader = {



}

or something similarly named, with these static references at the bottom

{ shader="toonShader" }
	{ shader="toonShader" defines=["

CartoonEdgeSlope

"]}

[__ben__]

While we didn't directly translate that shader, we have posted a tutorial on toon shaders:

 http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/stingray/stingray-how-to-make-a-toon-cel-shader-video/td-p/6012196

This should help, please reply back to the linked thread with any questions.