Overview / Usage

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VRS is a new feature of Microsoft DirectX* 12 and is supported on the 11th generation of Intel® graphics hardware. It enables you to trade off small amounts of quality, on selected parts of rendered content, in order to significantly reduce shading costs and improve FPS. Alternatively, you can increase the quality of a more prominent graphics feature by taking shading costs from something less visible.

Methodology / Approach

In this example, we are using VRS (https://microsoft.github.io/DirectX-Specs/d3d/VariableRateShading.html) to reduce shading costs in areas obscured by the Depth of Field effect. When VRS is applied, the quality loss is near-imperceptible. Because the DoF effect often blurs the results of expensive pixel shading, it is an ideal use case for VRS to recoup some of these shading costs.

As the objects come in and out of the area affected by the Depth of Field, the VRS Shading Rate used to render them is dynamically adjusted for optimal balance of performance gains versus quality loss.

This demo provides a way to interactively explore the VRS feature, letting the user directly observe and measure the visual changes as well as performance gains under various scenarios.

Technologies Used

Intel® Graphics, DirectX 12, Variable Rate Shading, Depth of Field

Repository

https://github.com/GameTechDev/VRS-DoF

Other links

• Variable Rate Shading, DirectX specs