High-Level Shading Language

Short description: Shading language

A scene containing several different 2D HLSL shaders. Distortion of the statue is achieved purely physically, while the texture of the rectangular frame beside it is based on color intensity. The square in the background has been transformed and rotated. The partial transparency and reflection of the water in the foreground are added by a shader applied finally to the entire scene.

The High-Level Shader Language[1] or High-Level Shading Language[2] (HLSL) is a proprietary shading language developed by Microsoft for the Direct3D 9 API to augment the shader assembly language, and went on to become the required shading language for the unified shader model of Direct3D 10 and higher.

HLSL is analogous to the GLSL shading language used with the OpenGL standard. It is very similar to the Nvidia Cg shading language, as it was developed alongside it. Early versions of the two languages were considered identical, only marketed differently.[3] HLSL shaders can enable profound speed and detail increases as well as many special effects in both 2D and 3D computer graphics.[citation needed]

HLSL programs come in six forms: pixel shaders (fragment in GLSL), vertex shaders, geometry shaders, compute shaders, tessellation shaders (Hull and Domain shaders), and ray tracing shaders (Ray Generation Shaders, Intersection Shaders, Any Hit/Closest Hit/Miss Shaders). A vertex shader is executed for each vertex that is submitted by the application, and is primarily responsible for transforming the vertex from object space to view space, generating texture coordinates, and calculating lighting coefficients such as the vertex's normal, tangent, and bitangent vectors. When a group of vertices (normally 3, to form a triangle) come through the vertex shader, their output position is interpolated to form pixels within its area; this process is known as rasterization.

Optionally, an application using a Direct3D 10/11/12 interface and Direct3D 10/11/12 hardware may also specify a geometry shader. This shader takes as its input some vertices of a primitive (triangle/line/point) and uses this data to generate/degenerate (or tessellate) additional primitives or to change the type of primitives, which are each then sent to the rasterizer.

D3D11.3 and D3D12 introduced Shader Model 5.1[4] and later 6.0.[5]

## Contents

* 1 Shader model comparison
* 1.1 Pixel shader comparison
* 1.2 Vertex shader comparison
* 2 See also
* 3 Footnotes
* 4 External links

## Shader model comparison

GPUs listed are the hardware that first supported the given specifications. Manufacturers generally support all lower shader models through drivers. Note that games may claim to require a certain DirectX version, but don't necessarily require a GPU conforming to the full specification of that version, as developers can use a higher DirectX API version to target lower-Direct3D-spec hardware; for instance DirectX 9 exposes features of DirectX7-level hardware that DirectX7 did not, targeting their fixed-function T&L pipeline.

### Pixel shader comparison

Pixel shader version  | 1.0 to 1.3[6] | 1.4[6] | 2.0[6][7] | 2.0a[6][7][8] | 2.0b[6][7][9] | 3.0[6][10] | 4.0[11]
4.1[12]
5.0[13]

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Dependent texture limit  | 4 | 6 | 8 | Unlimited | 8 | Unlimited | Unlimited
Texture instruction limit  | 4 | 6*2 | 32 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited
Position register  | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes
Instruction slots  | 8+4 | 8+4 | 32 + 64 | 512 | 512 | ≥ 512 | ≥ 65536
Executed instructions  | 8+4 | 6*2+8*2 | 32 + 64 | 512 | 512 | 65536 | Unlimited
Texture indirections  | 4 | 4 | 4 | Unlimited | 4 | Unlimited | Unlimited
Interpolated registers  | 2 + 4 | 2 + 6 | 2 + 8 | 2 + 8 | 2 + 8 | 10 | 32
Instruction predication  | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No
Index input registers  | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes
Temp registers  | 2 | 6 | 12 to 32 | 22 | 32 | 32 | 4096
Constant registers  | 8 | 8 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 224 | 16×4096
Arbitrary swizzling | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes
Gradient instructions  | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes
Loop count register  | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes
Face register (2-sided lighting)  | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes
Dynamic flow control  | No | No | No | No | No | Yes (24) | Yes (64)
Bitwise Operators  | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes
Native Integers  | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes

* PS 1.0 — Unreleased 3dfx Rampage, DirectX 8.
* PS 1.1 — GeForce 3, DirectX 8.
* PS 1.2 — 3Dlabs Wildcat VP, DirectX 8.0a.
* PS 1.3 — GeForce 4 Ti, DirectX 8.0a.
* PS 1.4 — Radeon 8500-9250, Matrox Parhelia, DirectX 8.1.
* Shader Model 2.0 — Radeon 9500-9800/X300-X600, DirectX 9.
* Shader Model 2.0a — GeForce FX/PCX-optimized model, DirectX 9.0a.
* Shader Model 2.0b — Radeon X700-X850 shader model, DirectX 9.0b.
* Shader Model 3.0 — Radeon X1000 and GeForce 6, DirectX 9.0c.
* Shader Model 4.0 — Radeon HD 2000 and GeForce 8, DirectX 10.
* Shader Model 4.1 — Radeon HD 3000 and GeForce 200, DirectX 10.1.
* Shader Model 5.0 — Radeon HD 5000 and GeForce 400, DirectX 11.
* Shader Model 5.1 — GCN 1+, Fermi+, DirectX 12 (11_0+) with WDDM 2.0.
* Shader Model 6.0 — GCN 1+, Kepler+, DirectX 12 (11_0+) with WDDM 2.1.
* Shader Model 6.1 — GCN 1+, Kepler+, DirectX 12 (11_0+) with WDDM 2.3.
* Shader Model 6.2 — GCN 1+, Kepler+, DirectX 12 (11_0+) with WDDM 2.4.
* Shader Model 6.3 — GCN 1+, Kepler+, DirectX 12 (11_0+) with WDDM 2.5.
* Shader Model 6.4 — GCN 1+, Kepler+, Skylake+, DirectX 12 (11_0+) with WDDM 2.6.
* Shader Model 6.5 — GCN 1+, Kepler+, Skylake+, DirectX 12 (11_0+) with WDDM 2.7.
* Shader Model 6.6 — GCN 1+, Kepler+, Skylake+, DirectX 12 (11_0+) with WDDM 2.9.

"32 + 64" for Executed Instructions means "32 texture instructions and 64 arithmetic instructions."

### Vertex shader comparison

Vertex shader version  | VS 1.1[14] | VS 2.0[7][14][8] | VS 2.0a[7][14][8] | VS 3.0[10][14] | VS 4.0[11]
VS 4.1[12]
VS 5.0[13]

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# of instruction slots  | 128 | 256 | 256 | ≥ 512 | ≥ 65536
Max # of instructions executed  | 128 | 1024 | 65536 | 65536 | Unlimited
Instruction predication  | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes
Temp registers  | 12 | 12 | 16 | 32 | 4096
# constant registers  | ≥ 96 | ≥ 256 | 256 | ≥ 256 | 16×4096
Static flow control  | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
Dynamic flow control  | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes
Dynamic flow control depth  | N/A | N/A | 24 | 24 | 64
Vertex texture fetch  | No | No | No | Yes | Yes
# of texture samplers  | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 | 128
Geometry instancing support  | No | No | No | Yes | Yes
Bitwise operators  | No | No | No | No | Yes
Native integers  | No | No | No | No | Yes

## See also

* Direct3D
* DirectX
* DirectX Raytracing
* GLSL
* Shading language

## Footnotes

1. ↑ "Writing HLSL Shaders in Direct3D 9". https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/dx-graphics-hlsl-writing-shaders-9.
2. ↑ "High-level shader language (HLSL)". https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/dx-graphics-hlsl. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
3. ↑ "Fusion Industries :: Cg and HLSL FAQ ::". 24 August 2012. http://www.fusionindustries.com/default.asp?page=cg-hlsl-faq.
4. ↑ "Shader Model 5.1 Objects". https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/shader-model-5-1-objects.
5. ↑ "HLSL Shader Model 6.0". https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/hlsl-shader-model-6-0-features-for-direct3d-12.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 "Pixel Shader Differences". Microsoft Docs. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/dx9-graphics-reference-asm-ps-differences.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Peeper, Craig; Mitchell, Jason L. (July 2003). "Introduction to the DirectX 9 High-Level Shader Language". Microsoft Docs. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/ms810449(v=msdn.10).
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Shimpi, Anand Lal. "NVIDIA Introduces GeForce FX (NV30)". AnandTech. https://www.anandtech.com/show/1034/4.
9. ↑ Wilson, Derek. "ATI Radeon X800 Pro and XT Platinum Edition: R420 Arrives". AnandTech. https://www.anandtech.com/show/1314/4.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Shader Model 3.0, Ashu Rege, NVIDIA Developer Technology Group, 2004.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Direct3D 10 System, David Blythe, Microsoft Corporation, 2006.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Registers - ps_4_1". https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/dx-graphics-hlsl-sm4-registers-ps-4-1.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Registers - ps_5_0". https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/registers
ps-5-0.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "Vertex Shader Differences". Microsoft Docs. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/dx9-graphics-reference-asm-vs-differences.

## External links

* Programming guide for HLSL at Microsoft Docs
* Introduction to the DirectX 9 High Level Shading Language, (ATI) AMD developer central
* Riemer's HLSL Introduction & Tutorial (includes sample code)
* HLSL Introduction
* DirectX Intermediate Language (DXIL) specification

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