Deferred Shading
Optimizations
Nicolas Thibieroz, AMD
[email protected]
Fully Deferred Engine
Building Pass
Render unique scene geometry pass into
G-Buffer RTs
Store material properties (albedo, normal,
specular, etc.)
Write to depth buffer as normal
GGBuffer
Buffer
MRTs
MRTs
Depth
Buffer
G-Buffer
Fully Deferred Engine
Passes
GGBuffer
Buffer
MRTs
MRTs
Add lighting contributions
into accumulation buffer
Use G-Buffer RTs as inputs
Render geometries
enclosing light area
Accum
.
Buffer
Shading
Depth
Buffer
Fully Deferred: Pros and
Cons
Scene geometry
decoupled from lighting
Shading/lighting only
applied to visible
fragments
Reduction in Render
States
G-Buffer already produces
data required for postprocessing
Significant engine rework
Requires more memory
Costly and complex MSAA
Forward rendering required
for translucent objects
Light Pre-pass
Render 1st geometry pass into
normal (and depth) buffer
Render Normals
Depth
Buffer
Uses a single color RT
No Multiple Render Targets
required
Normal
Buffer
Light Pre-pass
Lighting Accumulation
Normal
Buffer
Depth
Buffer
Perform all lighting
calculation into light
buffer
Use normal and depth
buffer as input textures
Render geometries
enclosing light area
Write LightColor * N.L *
Attenuation in RGB,
specular in A
Light
Buffer
Light Pre-pass Combine lighting with
materials
Render 2nd geometry
pass
using light buffer as
input
Fetch geometry
material
Combine with light
data
Light
Buffer
Depth
Buffer
Output
Light Pre-pass: Pros and
Cons
Scene geometry
decoupled from lighting
Shading/lighting only
applied to visible
fragments
G-Buffer already produces
data required for postprocessing
One material fetch per
pixel regardless of number
of lights
Significant engine rework
Costly and complex MSAA
Forward rendering required for
translucent objects
Two scene geometry passes
required
Unique lighting model
Semi-Deferred: Other
Methods
Light-indexed Deferred Rendering
Store ids of visible lights into light buffer
Using stencil or blending to mark light ids
Deferred Shadows
Most basic form of deferred rendering
Perform shadowing from screen-sized depth buffer
Most graphic engines now employ deferred shadows
G-Buffer Building Pass
(Fully Deferred)
G-Buffer Building Pass
Export Cost
GPUs can be
bottlenecked by
export cost
Pixel
Shader
Export cost is the cost of
writing PS outputs into RTs
Common scenario as PS
is typically short for this
pass!
Argh!
MRT
#0
MRT
#1
MRT
#2
G-Buffer
MRT
#3
Reducing Export Cost
Render objects in front-to-back order
Use fewer render targets in your MRT config
This also means less fetches during shading
passes
And less memory usage!
Avoid slow formats
Export Cost Rules
AMD GPUs
Each RT adds to export
cost
Avoid slow formats:
R32G32B32A32, R32G32, R32,
R32G32B32A32f, R32G32f,
R16G16B16A16.
+ R32F, R16G16, R16 on older GPUs
Total export cost =
(Num RTs) * (Slowest RT)
nVidia GPUs
Each RT adds to
export cost
RT export cost
proportional to bit
depth except:
<32bpp same speed as 32bpp
sRGB formats are slower
1010102 and 111110 slower
than 8888
Reducing Export Cost
Depth Buffer as Texture Input
No need to store depth into a color RT
Simply re-use the depth buffer as texture
input during shading passes
The same Depth buffer can remain bound
for depth rejection in DX11
Reducing Export Cost
Data Packing
Trade render target storage for a few extra ALU instructions
ALUs used to pack / unpack data
Example: normals with two components + sign
ALU cost is typically negligible compared to the performance
saving of writing and fetching to/from fewer textures
Aggressive packing may prevent filtering later on!
E.g. During post-process effects
Shading Passes
(Full and Semi-Deferred)
Light Processing
Add light contributions to accumulation buffer
Can use either:
Light volumes
Screen-aligned quads
In all cases:
Cull lights as needed before sending them to the
GPU
Dont render lights on skybox area
Light Volume Rendering
Render light volumes corresponding to lights
range
Fullscreen tri/quad (ambient or directional light)
Sphere (point light)
Cone/pyramid (spot light)
Custom shapes (level editor)
Tight fit between light coverage and processed
area
2D projection of volume define shaded area
Additively blend each light contribution to the
accumulation buffer
Use early depth/stencil culling optimizations
Light Volume Rendering
Full slides available in
backup section
Light Volume Rendering
Geometry Optimization
Always make sure your light volumes are
geometry-optimized!
For both index re-use (post VS cache) and sequential
vertex reads (pre VS cache)
Common oversight for algorithmically generated meshes
(spheres, cones, etc.)
Especially important when depth/stencil-only rendering is
used!!
No pixel shader = more likely to be VS fetch limited!
Screen-Aligned Quads
Far
Alternative to light volumes: render
a camera-facing quad for each light
Quad screen coordinates need to cover
the extents of the light volume
Light
Simpler geometry but coarser
rendering
Not as simple as it seems
Spheres (point lights) project to ellipses
in post-perspective space!
Can cause problems when close to
camera
Near
Camera
Points lights as quads
Incorrect sphere quad enclosure
Correct sphere quad enclosure
SwapChain:
Screen-Aligned Quads 2
Additively render each quad onto
accumulation buffer
LMaxZ
Process light equation as normal
Set quad Z coordinates to Min Z of light
Early Z will reject lights behind geometry with
Z Mode = LESSEQUAL
Watch out for clipping issues
Need to clamp quad Z to near clip plane Z if:
Light MinZ < Near Clip Plane Z < Light MaxZ
Saves on geometry cost but not as accurate
as volumes
LMinZ
DirectCompute Lighting
See Johan Anderssons presentation
Accessing Light Properties
Avoid using dynamic constant
buffer indexing in Pixel Shader
This generates redundant
memory operations repeated for
every pixel
Instead fetch light properties
from CB in VS (or GS)
And pass them to PS as
interpolants
No actual interpolation needed
Use nointerpolation to reduce
number of shader instructions
struct LIGHT_STRUCT
PS_QUAD_INPUT
VS_PointLight(VS_INPUT i)
{
float4 vColor;Out=(PS_QUAD_INPUT)0;
PS_QUAD_INPUT
float4 vPos;
};// Pass position
cbuffer
cbPointLightArray
Out.vPosition
= float4(i.vNDCPosition, 1.0);
{
LIGHT_STRUCT
//
Pass lightg_Light[NUM_LIGHTS];
properties to PS
};uint uIndex = i.uVertexIndex/4;
Out.vLightColor = g_Light[uIndex].vColor;
float4
PS_PointLight(PS_INPUT
i) : SV_TARGET
Out.vLightPos
= g_Light[uLightIndex].vPos;
{
// ... Out;
return
} uint uIndex = i.uPrimIndex/2;
float4 vColor
= g_Light[uIndex].vColor;
float4
vLightPos = g_Light[uIndex].vPos;
struct
PS_QUAD_INPUT
{ // ...
nointerpolation float4 vLightColor: LCOLOR;
nointerpolation float4 vLightPos : LPOS;
float4 vPosition
: SV_POSITION;
};
Texture Read Costs
Shading passes fetch G-Buffer data for each sample
Make sure point sampling filtering is used!
AMD: Point sampling filtering is fast for all formats
nVidia: prefer 16F over 32F
Post-processing passes may require filtering...
AMD: watch out for slow bilinear
formats
DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32_*
DXGI_FORMAT_R16G16B16A16_*
DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32[A32]_*
nVidia: no penalty for using bilinear
over point sampling filtering for
formats < 128 bpp
Blending Costs
Additively blending lights into accumulation buffer is not free
Higher blending cost when fatter color RT formats are used
Blending even more expensive when MSAA is enabled
Use Discard() to get rid of pixels not contributing any light
Use this regardless of the light processing method used
if ( dot(vColor.xyz, 1.0) == 0 ) discard;
Can result in a significant increase in performance!
MultiSampling Anti-Aliasing
MSAA with (semi-) deferred engines more
complex than just enabling MSAA
Deferred render targets must be
multisampled
Increase memory cost considerably!
Each qualifying sample must be individually lit
Impacts performance significantly
MultiSampling Anti-Aliasing
2
Detecting pixel edges reduce processing cost
Per-pixel shading on non-edge pixels
Per-sample shading on edge pixels
Edge detection via centroid is a neat trick, but is not that useful
Produces too many edges that dont need to be shaded per sample
Especially when tessellation is used!!
Doesnt detect edges from transparent textures
Better to detect edges checking depth and normal
discontinuities
Or consider alternative FSAA methods...
MSAA Edge
Detection
Conclusion
Questions?
[email protected]
Backup
Light Volume Rendering
Early Z culling Optimizations 1
When camera is inside the light volume
Set Z Mode = GREATER
Render volumes back faces
Only samples fully inside the volume
get shaded
Optimal use of early Z culling
No need for stencil
High efficiency
Depth test passes
Depth test fails
Light Volume Rendering
Early Z culling Optimizations 2a
Previous optimization does not
work if camera is outside volume!
Back faces also pass the
Z=GREATER test for objects in
front of volume
Those objects shouldnt be lit
This results in wasted processing!
Depth test passes
Depth test fails
Light Volume Rendering
Early Z culling Optimizations 2b
Alternative:
When camera is outside the light
volume:
Set Z Mode = LESSEQUAL
Render volumes front faces
Solves the case for objects in front of
volume
Depth test passes
Depth test fails
Light Volume Rendering
Early Z culling Optimizations 2c
Alternative:
When camera is outside the light volume:
Set Z Mode = LESSEQUAL
Render volumes front faces
Solves the case for objects in front of
volume
But generates wasted processing for
objects behind the volume!
Depth test passes
Depth test fails
Light Volume Rendering
Early stencil culling Optimizations
Stencil can be used to mark samples
inside the light volume
Render volume with stencil-only pass:
+1
+1
Clear stencil to 0
Z Mode = LESSEQUAL
If depth test fails:
Increment stencil for back faces
Decrement stencil for front faces
Render some geometry where stencil !=
0
Depth test passes
Depth test fails
-1
