The function of the vertex pipeline in any
GPU is to take geometry data (usually supplied as vector points), work with it if needed with either fixed function processes (earlier
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direc ...
), or a vertex shader program (later DirectX), and create all of the 3D data points in a scene to a 2D plane for display on a
computer monitor.
It is possible to eliminate unneeded data from going through the rendering pipeline to cut out extraneous work (called view volume clipping and
backface culling
In computer graphics, back-face culling determines whether a polygon of a graphical object is drawn. It is a step in the graphical pipeline that tests whether the points in the polygon appear in clockwise or counter-clockwise order when projected ...
). After the vertex engine is done working with the geometry, all the 2D calculated data is sent to the pixel engine for further processing such as texturing and fragment shading.
As of DirectX 9c, the vertex processor is able to do the following by programming the vertex processing under the Direct X API:
*
Displacement mapping
*
Geometry blending
*
Higher-order primitives
*
Point sprites
*
Matrix stacks
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...
External links
Anandtech Article
{{Graphics Processing Unit
3D computer graphics
Graphics standards