Hi Esenthel,

Is it possible for me to use a custom geometry shader with Esenthel? There is some complex geometry shader stuff that I might try implement with Esenthel if it is possible.

Also is it possible to make calls directly to D3D?

Just want to understand what level of access I can have for rendering. Cheers

Hey,
You know on the store there's Shader Headers, is that what your wanting?
Shader Headers allowing to create custom shaders in the engine.

No that not what I'm talking about. I already have those headers. I'm specifically asking about Geometry shaders and if I can make D3D calls directly.

As far as I can tell EE doesn't currently use them (maybe I'm wrong) wondering if there would be any problems trying to use them with EE. I'm an OpenGL man and I know how that works but know little about D3D... so forgive me for my ignorance on this matter.

I don't think D3D device is exposed in any way. I think there have been requests in the past to have this exposed but as far as I know that has not been done.

Hmm thanks for the info. Guess that's that then.

Your options are:

1. Purchase source license.
2. Convince Esenthel to make a function that returns the DirectX device.
3. Hack your own game by hooking into the directx device:
http://www.esenthel.com/community/printt...p?tid=3850

Of course since your talking geometry shaders you would be hunting for DX10 or 11 device most likely not the DX9 device.

(05-22-2013 08:34 PM)Fex Wrote:  Your options are:

1. Purchase source license.
2. Convince Esenthel to make a function that returns the DirectX device.
3. Hack your own game by hooking into the directx device:
http://www.esenthel.com/community/printt...p?tid=3850

Of course since your talking geometry shaders you would be hunting for DX10 or 11 device most likely not the DX9 device.

Thanks for the info, though I don't really think it's worth the effort in the long run. I am actually in the process of coding my own engine (Note: I'm not advertising here it's not for sale anyway) and was going to try implement one of the features I have planned from that into esenthel for a friend.

Hi!
Sorry the geometry shaders are not supported, in my whole engine development I never had the need to write one (even dx11 tesselation does not operate on GS but just on hull and domain shaders, which are supported in EE dx11).
What's the feature that you wanted to implement?

I don't provide direct access to D3D device, because that:
-is not portable (I tend to make everything cross platform)
-could mess up the engine caching of D3D state (you modify some value, but the engine assumes something else was set)

Don't make your own engine by yourself (unless it's just for fun/education), I've spent over 10 years working on Esenthel full time to get it to the point where it is now. By the time your engine would be ready to use, the competition will be way ahead. Either work in a team, or join existing engine development team/company, or like previously mentioned just do it for fun/education
If at this time I had to make a new engine from scratch, I wouldn't do it, only working in a team makes sense (as of this time).

Hey, well I am just doing it for fun really I find it all very interesting and so far I seem to be pretty good at it. Also it won't have as broad a focus like many engines. I'm making it to specifically do just one type of game for myself for PC only, with probably only 1/15th of the scope of Esenthel. Whether I ever finish it or not I don't care I just love playing with all that stuff and I'm a better coder for it too. + I just like the feeling of knowing what's going on under the hood... I hate being ignorant. Really it's just a hobby... developing my game is no longer a hobby to me it's more like a mission / second job so coding a simple engine with a few experimental features will be my hobby for a while.

I'm still using Esenthel to finish NANO and probably for many of my future games as I don't see anything better around.

What I wanted to do with the GS shader was random terrain with marching cube using density functions. Off course I can still do this on the CPU for initial generation of the terrain but it would be very slow to load. This isn't something I actually need I'm just interested in doing it.