Physically Based Shader Development for Unity 2017: Develop Custom Lighting Systems

© Claudia Doppioslash 2018

Claudia DoppioslashPhysically Based Shader Development for Unity 2017https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3309-2_3

3. The Graphics Pipeline

Claudia Doppioslash^1 

(1)

Liverpool, Merseyside, UK

 

This chapter describes every step in the execution of shaders, including how they hook into the graphics pipeline.

By graphics pipeline we intend the steps needed to render a 3D scene into a 2D screen. As mentioned in the first chapter, shader execution is composed of many steps. Some of those steps are implemented completely in hardware in the GPU, and they are fixed, while others are programmable through shaders. This is because the modern GPU has evolved around the graphics pipeline.

3D renderers were first implemented completely ...