[Directx11][C++] Help with hardware instancing

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1 comment, last by Steven Ford 4 years, 11 months ago

I'm a total beginner with Directx/3D programming. I need help with implementing hardware instancing on Directx 11. I'm trying to render multiple cubes on the screen, to create some sort of Minecraft-esque voxel engine. The problem is, I don't know where to start to achieve this. This is how my "render frame" function looks:


void RenderFrame(void)
{
	D3DXMATRIX matView, matProjection;
	D3DXMATRIX matFinal;

	// create a view matrix
	D3DXMatrixLookAtLH(&matView,
		&D3DXVECTOR3(0.0f, 9.0f, 24.0f),   // the camera position
		&D3DXVECTOR3(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f),    // the look-at position
		&D3DXVECTOR3(0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f));   // the up direction

// create a projection matrix
	D3DXMatrixPerspectiveFovLH(&matProjection,
		(FLOAT)D3DXToRadian(45),                    // field of view
		(FLOAT)SCREEN_WIDTH / (FLOAT)SCREEN_HEIGHT, // aspect ratio
		1.0f,                                       // near view-plane
		100.0f);                                    // far view-plane

// create the final transform
	matFinal = matView * matProjection;

	// clear the back buffer to a deep blue
	devcon->ClearRenderTargetView(backbuffer, D3DXCOLOR(0.0f, 0.2f, 0.4f, 1.0f));

	// clear the depth buffer
	devcon->ClearDepthStencilView(zbuffer, D3D11_CLEAR_DEPTH, 1.0f, 0);

	// select which vertex buffer to display
	UINT stride = sizeof(VERTEX);
	UINT offset = 0;
	devcon->IASetVertexBuffers(0, 1, &pVBuffer, &stride, &offset);
	devcon->IASetIndexBuffer(pIBuffer, DXGI_FORMAT_R32_UINT, 0);

	// select which primtive type we are using
	devcon->IASetPrimitiveTopology(D3D11_PRIMITIVE_TOPOLOGY_TRIANGLELIST);

	// draw the Hypercraft
	devcon->UpdateSubresource(pCBuffer, 0, 0, &matFinal, 0, 0);
	devcon->DrawIndexed(24, 0, 0);

	// switch the back buffer and the front buffer
	swapchain->Present(0, 0);
}

Notice that there's a single vertex buffer containing the verteces of a cube, and index buffer containing its indeces. I want to render many (5000+) cubes on the screen at once on a single draw call, without performance issues, so I know instancing is the way to go, but I don't know how to implement it in my code. What changes do I need to do to my code in order to display multiple instances of the cube?

Thanks in advance!

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A good way to learn about this is the Rastertek series.

Alternatively, the following book from Frank Luna is excellent as a way to learn.

A very high level summary is that you have 2 buffers:

1. Containing the vertices for the model in model space
2. Contains the transform to apply to the model (the instances)

Your vertex shader then applies the values from #2 to each of the input vertices

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