Hey guys, I've been searching around on the internets for some resources on getting started with HLSL. I believe I understand how the World, View, and matrices work together, and can do a decent amount of rendering logic, but now I need to start working on shaders. My game is based in space so shaders will be a big deal (the stars should be a single Vector3 point and the shader should be able to draw it properly, and I'd like the planets to be shaded, bumpped, shadowed, textured, etc all based off of a shader, and have atmospheric effects).

Obviously that's a lot of technical stuff, and right now I'm just trying to figure out the basics. I'm even having problems finding a manual that shows valid things to add to the shader input/output structures. A point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

http://msdn.microsof...v=VS.85%29.aspx

http://www.toymaker....ml/shaders.html

http://www.two-kings...graphics18.html

The first side is form the mdsn (you'll find everything concerning syntax, etc.. there), the others are tutorials I used myself to learn the basics of shaders. You might want to look for "Effect files" after you got that basics of shaders as they make things much easier.

Oh yeah and as you said you can't find a site for valid input/output-stuff:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb509647%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Thanks so much The King 2.. I don't know why i couldn't find that document, I normally find information pretty quick. Hopefully I'll be able to pick this up with relative ease