Table of Contents

Rasterization

Rasterization draws vertices and indexed geometry into color and depth/stencil attachments. A graphics pipeline combines Slang shaders, vertex input, attachment formats, and render state.

Compile the Shaders

Compile the vertex and fragment entry points for the active context with ZenithCompiler, then create both shaders from their descriptions. See Shaders for compilation from files or source strings.

Create the Pipeline

Define one InputLayout for each vertex-buffer slot. Add appends an element and updates the stream stride:

InputLayout inputLayout = new();
inputLayout.Add(new()
{
    Format = ElementFormat.Float4,
    Semantic = ElementSemantic.Position
});

Add the remaining elements in the same order as the shader input.

Create a pipeline from a description whose attachment formats match the render pass:

GraphicsPipelineDesc desc = new()
{
    VertexShader = vertexShader,
    FragmentShader = fragmentShader,
    InputLayouts = [inputLayout],
    PrimitiveTopology = PrimitiveTopology.TriangleList,
    AttachmentFormats = attachmentFormats,
    RenderState = renderState
};

GraphicsPipeline pipeline = context.CreateGraphicsPipeline(desc);

Keep the input element order, semantics, and formats aligned with the Slang vertex input.

Draw in a Render Pass

Transition the attachments, begin the pass, bind the pipeline state, and draw:

commandBuffer.Transition(texture, default, TextureLayout.Undefined, TextureLayout.ColorAttachment);
commandBuffer.BeginRenderPass([ColorAttachment.Clear(texture, default)], null);

commandBuffer.SetPipeline(pipeline);
commandBuffer.Draw(vertexCount, 1, 0, 0);

commandBuffer.EndRenderPass();

Choose Load, Clear, or DontCare for each attachment according to whether previous contents are needed. BeginRenderPass initializes the viewport and scissor from the attachment size.

Set a smaller viewport and scissor after beginning the pass when rendering to only part of an attachment.

Use Draw for non-indexed geometry and DrawIndexed for indexed geometry. DrawIndirect and DrawIndexedIndirect read commands from a buffer created with BufferUsages.Indirect.

See Bindless Resources for shader-visible resources and Synchronization when GPU work produces indirect arguments.

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