AMD ShadowFX

The ShadowFX library provides a scalable and GCN-optimized solution for deferred shadow filtering. Currently the library supports uniform and contact hardening shadow (CHS) kernels.

Version 2.0 of the library now supports both DirectX® 11 and DirectX® 12. The ShadowFX API is unified across D3D11 and D3D12, allowing an easy transition to D3D12. Samples are provided for both D3D11 and D3D12 versions.

The library supports a range of different options:

• Shadow map packing into an atlas or a texture array
• Processing up to 6 shadow maps for a union of lights, cascaded light, or a cube light
• Poisson-distributed and regular sampling patterns

The ShadowFX library can also serve as a sandbox for experiments with other shadow filtering techniques.

Prerequisites for DirectX 11

• AMD Radeon™ GCN-based GPU (HD 7000 series or newer)
  • Or other DirectX® 11 compatible discrete GPU with Shader Model 5 support
• 64-bit Windows® 7 (SP1 with the Platform Update), Windows® 8.1, or Windows® 10
• Visual Studio® 2015 or Visual Studio® 2017

Prerequisites for DirectX 12

• AMD Radeon™ GCN-based GPU (HD 7000 series or newer)
  • Or other DirectX® 12 compatible discrete GPU with Shader Model 5 support
• 64-bit Windows® 10
• Visual Studio® 2015 or Visual Studio® 2017

Getting started

• For DirectX 11, Visual Studio solutions for VS2015 and VS2017 can be found in the amd_shadowfx11_sample\build directory.
• For DirectX 12, Visual Studio solutions for VS2015 and VS2017 can be found in the amd_shadowfx12_sample\build directory.
• There are also solutions for just the core library in the amd_shadowfx\build directory.
• Documentation is located in the amd_shadowfx\doc directory.

Learn More

• Related blog posts on GPUOpen

Premake

The Visual Studio solutions and projects in this repo were generated with Premake. If you need to regenerate the Visual Studio files, double-click on gpuopen_geometryfx_update_vs_files.bat in the premake directory.

For Visual Studio 2015 and 2017, this version of Premake adds the WindowsTargetPlatformVersion element to the project file to specify which version of the Windows SDK will be used. To change WindowsTargetPlatformVersion for Visual Studio 2015 and 2017, change the value for _AMD_WIN_SDK_VERSION in premake\amd_premake_util.lua and regenerate the Visual Studio files.

Third-Party Software

• DXUT is distributed under the terms of the MIT License. See framework\d3d11\dxut\MIT.txt.
• Premake is distributed under the terms of the BSD License. See premake\LICENSE.txt.
• The Open Asset Import Library (assimp) is distributed under the terms of the BSD License. See third_party\assimp\LICENSE.

DXUT and Assimp are only used by the samples, not the core library. Only first-party software (specifically amd_shadowfx and amd_lib) is needed to build the ShadowFX library.

Attribution

• AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Radeon, Crossfire, and combinations thereof are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
• Microsoft, DirectX, Visual Studio, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.