Any plans to support DirectX 10/11 export in the future?

[jprice]

Hi,

Fx Composer supports DirectX 10, and most real-time rendering developers are working with DirectX 10 or 11. Are there any plans for a future version of mental mill that will support exporting for the latest versions of DirectX?

I know that most Autodesk DCC tools don't support the latest programmable GPUs, but many developers use these DCC tools for asset creation, then export for use in a cutting edge renderer. Shaders that could be viewed in 3ds max using DirectX 9, for example, but that could be exported from mental mill for DirectX 10/11 would be able to be integrated into more up-to-date software.

Thanks,
John Price

[ruediger]

Hi John,

currently there are no special features of DX 10/11 that we are supporting that would be incompatible with prior DX versions.
You can export you shaders from mental mill to HLSL under "File > Export" and from there you can choose the "Custom HLSL FX" exporter from the dropdown menu.
You can set a couple of parameters to fine-tweak the exporter. There you can also specify for which vertex shader profile and fro which fragment shader profile you want to compile your shader.
Based on the settings there the shader can be compiled in the most suitable way for that hardware. That means that your shaders will run on newer DX versions. Do you have any special needs for generated shaders?

Best Regards,
Ruediger

[jprice]

Hi Ruediger,

I tried your suggestion of using the "Custom HLSL FX" exporter from the dropdown menu. I set the vs and ps profiles to 4_0 for DirectX 10 and exported. The code did in fact specify vs_4_0 and ps_4_0, however these were wrapped by a DirectX 9 technique. DirectX 10 requires a technique10 declaration. The syntax for "state" has changed, stateblocks are used in DirectX 10/11. Also the syntax for texture has changed. The code generated by the exporter didn't account for these changes.

The more improtant issue is the fact that the generated code won't compile. There were some minor but important changes in syntax between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10/11.

If I invested in the Integrator Edition, would I be able to write my own DirectX 10/11 exporter?

Thank you,
John Price

[ruediger]

Hi John,

you are absolutely right about the state blocks and the techniques. These are not yet supported by mental mill.

If it is about changing the name of the blocks (for example the state blocks) you can of course use the integrators edition that comes with the full HLSL exporter as an example. The HLSL exporter is on full working example, you can also write an exporter that exports to your own costom proprietary shader language.

So you can add a lot of tweaks to the generated code. You can start with the HLSL exporter and modify it to fit exactly your needs.

Best Regards,
Ruediger