I try to modidy the shader code of OIT, http://www.yakiimo3d.com/2010/07/25/dx11-order-independent-transparency-with-msaa/, and the source code can be downloaded from http://yakiimo3d.codeplex.com/releases/view/49570. But in StoreFragments.hlsl, when they render into a linked list, they use a byte address buffer for offset.

void StoreFragmentsPS( SceneVS_Output input )
{
uint x = input.pos.x; // [0,g_nFrameWidth]
uint y = input.pos.y; // [0,g_nFrameHeight]
// Create fragment data.
uint4 nColor = saturate( input.color ) * 255;
FragmentLink element;
element.fragmentData.nColor = (nColor.x) | (nColor.y << 8) | (nColor.z << 16) | (nColor.a << 24);
element.fragmentData.fDepth = input.pos.z;

// Increment and get current pixel count.
uint nPixelCount= FLBuffer.IncrementCounter();


// Read and update Start Offset Buffer.
uint nIndex = y * g_nFrameWidth + x;
uint nStartOffsetAddress = 4 * nIndex;
uint nOldStartOffset;

StartOffsetBuffer.InterlockedExchange(
nStartOffsetAddress, nPixelCount, nOldStartOffset );


if ( nOldStartOffset != 0xFFFFFFFF ) {
//get an error: array, matrix, vector or indexable object.......
uint index = StartOffsetBuffer[ idx ];
}
// Store fragment link.
element.nNext = nOldStartOffset;
FLBuffer[ nPixelCount ] = element;
}


With the function InterlockedExchange, nPixelCount value will be saved at nStartOffsetAddress position and we can get the old value. Hence, we can use nOldStartOffset value as an index to get the previous/next element, but why did I get that error? and how to solve it?
Anybody help me, please? Thank in advance.

Hi!

I’m curious, why do you need to check the old address? Do you want to find out whether you got the “tail” of the list? What do you like to achieve? Maybe we can assist a little. Looks like you’re only writing if it is the tail, thus you don’t really build up a list. The OIT code would work just fine without it.


void StoreFragmentsPS( SceneVS_Output input )
{
...
//if ( nOldStartOffset != 0xFFFFFFFF ) {
//get an error: array, matrix, vector or indexable object.......
// uint index = StartOffsetBuffer[ idx ];
//}
// Store fragment link.
element.nNext = nOldStartOffset;
FLBuffer[ nPixelCount ] = element;
//}


But to answer your question, firstly the variable idx doesn’t exist and secondly only structured buffers have an array index operator. For ByteAddressBuffer you can use Load.
uint index = StartOffsetBuffer.Load(someByteAddress);
The shader that does the sorting of the fragments also uses Load to read from the StartOffsetBuffer btw.

Cheers!

Thank you so much, Tsus, I have tried the Load function before and I got the same error, but maybe there is something wrong, now it is working.