I've never really understood the depth parameter in a viewport. The width is used for converting from clip space x (-1,1) to viewport x (0,say 1024). The height is the same except for y. But the depth value for a viewport is specified as a float and is usually (0.0,1.0). But after projection the z/w value is already within(0.0,1.0), right? So what is the point of these values in the viewport? Why would anyone put something other than (0.0, 1.0). The DirectX SDK gives the example: "... to render a heads-up display in a game, you can set both values to 0.0 to force the system to render objects in a scene in the foreground, or you might set them both to 1.0 to render an object that should always be in the background" Unfortunately this example just makes me more confused. It kind of makes it sound like the viewport depth (min, max) is used in z buffer calculation. Is this true?

Quote:Could you tell what (D3DX I assume) function are you talking about?

I believe he's referring to the MinZ and MaxZ values of the D3DVIEWPORT9 struct (the OpenGL equivalent would be glDepthRange()).

Quote:Could you tell the link? Quoting out of context just confuses more.

Here, about halfway down the page. (Another use for the 'depth range' trick, incidentally, is to force debug graphics to the front of the depth buffer. Quake 3, for example, uses this technique for rendering triangle normals and wireframe outlines.)

jyk is correct. I apologize for not being more clear. Here is the entire paragraph out of the DXSDK which is the link jyk has given above.

Note: MinZ and MaxZ indicate the depth-ranges into which the scene will be rendered and are not used for clipping. Most applications will set these members to 0.0 and 1.0 to enable the system to render to the entire range of depth values in the depth buffer. In some cases, you can achieve special effects by using other depth ranges. For instance, to render a heads-up display in a game, you can set both values to 0.0 to force the system to render objects in a scene in the foreground, or you might set them both to 1.0 to render an object that should always be in the background.


So I guess my confusion comes how exactly this range (MinZ, MaxZ) affects the input of something being drawn. It says it's not used for clipping. Perhaps it's best described as an example:

Z test : true ( always pass )
Z write: true
Near plane: 1
Far plane: 100
Viewport MinZ : 0.50
Viewport MaxZ : 0.75

How will the following incoming z values (in camera space before projection) get applied with the above settings? Lets assume a linear Z buffer just for this example.

1
25
50
65
75
100


For example, does the minZ & maxZ just compress the input range to the viewport range ie. 1->0.5 & 100->0.75 ? And which value gets written to the depth buffer?