Category Archives: The Human Compiler

I’m trying to do some Volume Rendering. In order to convert the code of the book “Real-Time Volume Graphics” by Engel et el. , I need to learn CG and later GLSL to implemented in GLSL. Why do I want to implemented in GLSL? Well, for one, one of my computers has AMD ATI. While CG may run in here, I did face a few problems. I also want to use this opportunity to understand the code in the book better, and what better way to complicate the heck out of my life, right?

Well, I think is a good exercise. If you are reading this blog, the pre-requisite is that you understand basic OpenGL and have a programming background. Hopefully, a Computer Science background.

Before, I start with the first item to described, the reason that I want to manual translation as opposed to use the CGC compiler to translate from CG to GLSL (which is possible) is to have a more clean output and to learn more. You can convert a vertex shader in cg to glsl. For example to cgc -o v_shader.gl -profile glslv -po version=300 v_shader.cg to convert to a GLSL. However, this GLSL does not look nicely organized… here is an example, of an output of a fragment (for fragment shader use glslf and for geometry shaders use glslg)

CG Version of fp_showGradient.cg (from RTVG book)

#define EPSILON (0.003)

#define GRADIENT_AFTER_TF
half4 main(
 half3 uvw : TEXCOORD0,
 half4 col : COLOR,

 uniform half3 viewVec,
 uniform sampler3D volume,
 uniform sampler1D colortable) : COLOR
{
 half4 valueX1 = tex3D(volume,uvw-half3(EPSILON,0.0,0.0));
 half4 valueX2 = tex3D(volume,uvw+half3(EPSILON,0.0,0.0));
 half4 valueY1 = tex3D(volume,uvw-half3(0.0,EPSILON,0.0));
 half4 valueY2 = tex3D(volume,uvw+half3(0.0,EPSILON,0.0));
 half4 valueZ1 = tex3D(volume,uvw-half3(0.0,0.0,EPSILON));
 half4 valueZ2 = tex3D(volume,uvw+half3(0.0,0.0,EPSILON));
 half4 value = tex3D(volume,uvw);
 half4 color = tex1D(colortable,value.a);

 half3 gradient;

#ifdef GRADIENT_AFTER_TF
 half4 vX1 = tex1D(colortable,valueX1.a);
 half4 vX2 = tex1D(colortable,valueX2.a);
 half4 vY1 = tex1D(colortable,valueY1.a);
 half4 vY2 = tex1D(colortable,valueY2.a);
 half4 vZ1 = tex1D(colortable,valueZ1.a);
 half4 vZ2 = tex1D(colortable,valueZ2.a);
 gradient.x = vX2.a-vX1.a;
 gradient.y = vY2.a-vY1.a;
 gradient.z = vZ2.a-vZ1.a;

#else
 gradient.x = valueX2-valueX1;
 gradient.y = valueY2-valueY1;
 gradient.z = valueZ2-valueZ1;
#endif
 color.xyz = (1.0+normalize(gradient))/2.0;

 return color;
}

after conversion it looks like this:

// glslf output by Cg compiler
// cgc version 3.1.0013, build date Apr 18 2012
// command line args: -profile glslf -po version=410
// source file: fp_showGradient.cg
//vendor NVIDIA Corporation
//version 3.1.0.13
//profile glslf
//program main
//semantic main.viewVec
//semantic main.volume
//semantic main.colortable
//var sampler3D volume : : _volume1 : 3 : 1
//var sampler1D colortable : : _colortable1 : 4 : 1
//var float3 uvw : $vin.TEXCOORD0 : TEXCOORD0 : 0 : 1
//var float4 col : $vin.COLOR : : 1 : 0
//var float4 main : $vout.COLOR : COLOR : -1 : 1

#version 410

vec3 _TMP14;
float _TMP16;
float _TMP15;
float _TMP18;
float _TMP17;
vec4 _TMP13;
vec4 _TMP12;
vec4 _TMP11;
vec4 _TMP10;
vec4 _TMP9;
vec4 _TMP8;
vec4 _TMP7;
vec4 _TMP6;
vec3 _uvw1;
vec4 _TMP5;
vec4 _TMP4;
vec4 _TMP3;
vec4 _TMP2;
vec4 _TMP1;
vec4 _TMP0;
uniform sampler3D _volume1;
uniform sampler1D _colortable1;
vec3 _c0023;
vec3 _c0025;
vec3 _c0027;
vec3 _c0029;
vec3 _c0031;
vec3 _c0033;
vec3 _c0035;
float _c0037;
float _c0039;
float _c0041;
float _c0043;
float _c0045;
float _c0047;
float _c0049;
in vec4 cg_TexCoord0;
out vec4 cg_FragColor;

// main procedure, the original name was main
void main()
{

vec4 _valueX1;
 vec4 _valueX2;
 vec4 _valueY1;
 vec4 _valueY2;
 vec4 _valueZ1;
 vec4 _valueZ2;
 vec4 _value;
 vec4 _color;
 vec3 _gradient;
 vec4 _vX1;
 vec4 _vX2;
 vec4 _vY1;
 vec4 _vY2;
 vec4 _vZ1;
 vec4 _vZ2;

_uvw1 = vec3(float(cg_TexCoord0.x), float(cg_TexCoord0.y), float(cg_TexCoord0.z));
 _c0023 = vec3(float((_uvw1 - vec3( 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000)).x), float((_uvw1 - vec3( 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000)).y), float((_uvw1 - vec3( 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000)).z));
 _TMP0 = texture(_volume1, _c0023);
 _valueX1 = vec4(float(_TMP0.x), float(_TMP0.y), float(_TMP0.z), float(_TMP0.w));
 _c0025 = vec3(float((_uvw1 + vec3( 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000)).x), float((_uvw1 + vec3( 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000)).y), float((_uvw1 + vec3( 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000)).z));
 _TMP1 = texture(_volume1, _c0025);
 _valueX2 = vec4(float(_TMP1.x), float(_TMP1.y), float(_TMP1.z), float(_TMP1.w));
 _c0027 = vec3(float((_uvw1 - vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000)).x), float((_uvw1 - vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000)).y), float((_uvw1 - vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000)).z));
 _TMP2 = texture(_volume1, _c0027);
 _valueY1 = vec4(float(_TMP2.x), float(_TMP2.y), float(_TMP2.z), float(_TMP2.w));
 _c0029 = vec3(float((_uvw1 + vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000)).x), float((_uvw1 + vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000)).y), float((_uvw1 + vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003, 0.00000000E+000)).z));
 _TMP3 = texture(_volume1, _c0029);
 _valueY2 = vec4(float(_TMP3.x), float(_TMP3.y), float(_TMP3.z), float(_TMP3.w));
 _c0031 = vec3(float((_uvw1 - vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003)).x), float((_uvw1 - vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003)).y), float((_uvw1 - vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003)).z));
 _TMP4 = texture(_volume1, _c0031);
 _valueZ1 = vec4(float(_TMP4.x), float(_TMP4.y), float(_TMP4.z), float(_TMP4.w));
 _c0033 = vec3(float((_uvw1 + vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003)).x), float((_uvw1 + vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003)).y), float((_uvw1 + vec3( 0.00000000E+000, 0.00000000E+000, 3.00025940E-003)).z));
 _TMP5 = texture(_volume1, _c0033);
 _valueZ2 = vec4(float(_TMP5.x), float(_TMP5.y), float(_TMP5.z), float(_TMP5.w));
 _c0035 = vec3(float(_uvw1.x), float(_uvw1.y), float(_uvw1.z));
 _TMP6 = texture(_volume1, _c0035);
 _value = vec4(float(_TMP6.x), float(_TMP6.y), float(_TMP6.z), float(_TMP6.w));
 _c0037 = float(_value.w);
 _TMP7 = texture(_colortable1, _c0037);
 _color = vec4(float(_TMP7.x), float(_TMP7.y), float(_TMP7.z), float(_TMP7.w));
 _c0039 = float(_valueX1.w);
 _TMP8 = texture(_colortable1, _c0039);
 _vX1 = vec4(float(_TMP8.x), float(_TMP8.y), float(_TMP8.z), float(_TMP8.w));
 _c0041 = float(_valueX2.w);
 _TMP9 = texture(_colortable1, _c0041);
 _vX2 = vec4(float(_TMP9.x), float(_TMP9.y), float(_TMP9.z), float(_TMP9.w));
 _c0043 = float(_valueY1.w);
 _TMP10 = texture(_colortable1, _c0043);
 _vY1 = vec4(float(_TMP10.x), float(_TMP10.y), float(_TMP10.z), float(_TMP10.w));
 _c0045 = float(_valueY2.w);
 _TMP11 = texture(_colortable1, _c0045);
 _vY2 = vec4(float(_TMP11.x), float(_TMP11.y), float(_TMP11.z), float(_TMP11.w));
 _c0047 = float(_valueZ1.w);
 _TMP12 = texture(_colortable1, _c0047);
 _vZ1 = vec4(float(_TMP12.x), float(_TMP12.y), float(_TMP12.z), float(_TMP12.w));
 _c0049 = float(_valueZ2.w);
 _TMP13 = texture(_colortable1, _c0049);
 _vZ2 = vec4(float(_TMP13.x), float(_TMP13.y), float(_TMP13.z), float(_TMP13.w));
 _gradient.x = _vX2.w - _vX1.w;
 _gradient.y = _vY2.w - _vY1.w;
 _gradient.z = _vZ2.w - _vZ1.w;
 _TMP17 = dot(vec3(float(_gradient.x), float(_gradient.y), float(_gradient.z)), vec3(float(_gradient.x), float(_gradient.y), float(_gradient.z)));
 _TMP15 = float(_TMP17);
 _TMP18 = inversesqrt(float(_TMP15));
 _TMP16 = float(_TMP18);
 _TMP14 = _TMP16*_gradient;
 _color.xyz = (1.00000000E+000 + _TMP14)/2.00000000E+000;
 cg_FragColor = vec4(float(_color.x), float(_color.y), float(_color.z), float(_color.w));
 return;
} // main end

Now you can see why?

Well, the first part that I wanted to look at was the data types in CG (from the free available user guide that comes with the CG Toolkit)

• float = 32-bit IEEE floating point (s23e8)
• half = 16-bit like IEEE floating point (s10e5)
• fixed= 12-bit fixed point number (s1.10) number,
• int = 32-bit integer (note that profile may omit support for this type or treated as float)
• bool = boolean true or false.
• string = used for queries from the CG runtime.
• sampler, sampler1D,sampler2D, sampler3D, samplerCUBE, samplerRECT for texture objects
• Struct with member variables. You can also include member functions if needed.
• Arrays just like in C.
• Unsized arrays. For example, float vals[], float vals2d[][],float somevals[10][] and so on…
• CG supports interfaces. (You can only implement one interface per structure. You cannot combine or extended interfaces)

Remember you can have float4,float3,float2,float1,half4,half3…. and so on. 
Remember that as opposed to C, CG does not have implicit conversion. They must be explicit 

PS: I have to be honest… the data type HALF as the keyword identifier does not make me happy. Could have they used single or something else better… 

I will have a series 2 soon.