   glDepthBoundsEXT
  Anyone used this extension? I am wondering if I can use it without stencil shadows or scissor testing... I would like to use it to reduce my fragment load sent to my shaders...   
Quote:I am wondering if I can use it without stencil shadows or scissor testing...The specifications don't mention a dependence on these two. They say that the extension was originally created to speed up stencil shadow rendering (by discarding shadow volume pixels outside the light's effective depth range), but there is no connection between the test and the process.In the same way that scissor testing isn't tied to shadow volume rendering (you can use scissoring with other techniques), depth bounds test can be used whenever you want (given it is supported of course).HellRaiZer   ;  The depth bounds test can be used kind of like a z-axis for the scissor box if depth is already written to the scene. For instance, in a lighting pass you can calculate both the scissor rectangle and the min/max depth that a point light source could possibly affect and restrict rendering to this 3D box. Using DBT will knock out fragments on some of the bigger geometries in your scene that may straddle the z boundaries of the light's volume of influence, saving you some fill time.   ;Quote:Original post by Eric LengyelThe depth bounds test can be used kind of like a z-axis for the scissor box if depth is already written to the scene. For instance, in a lighting pass you can calculate both the scissor rectangle and the min/max depth that a point light source could possibly affect and restrict rendering to this 3D box. Using DBT will knock out fragments on some of the bigger geometries in your scene that may straddle the z boundaries of the light's volume of influence, saving you some fill time.So to sum up, no on using this extension unless you are doing scissor boxes... As of now I am not using scissor for anything. I was hoping I could use this extension to limit the amount for fragments I send to be processed based upon my own parameters, so I could check to see if my card is fill limited.   ;Quote:So to sum up, no on using this extension unless you are doing scissor boxes... As of now I am not using scissor for anything. I was hoping I could use this extension to limit the amount for fragments I send to be processed based upon my own parameters, so I could check to see if my card is fill limited.I don't think Mr. Lengyel said something like that. I can think of a case where depth bounds testing can be usefull without scissoring.Scissor + DBT works well when the camera's near plane (or more correctly the near quad) don't cross light's bounding volume. In other words, when the camera is inside the light's effective range (its bounding volume), scissor testing will not do any good because you will end up setting the scissor box equal to the screen resolution. But, DBT alone can actually help you there, by not processing fragments out of the light's effective range in the z dimension.Hope that was clear.HellRaiZerEDIT : To sum up. I think you can safely use the extension without scissoring. If it works for you, then who cares if the extension wasn't meant to be used like that :) There isn't something in the specs saying that DBT will not work unless you enable scissoring. So go for it. Will it help? I don't know :)   ;  Hey Hellrazier. I tried the extension and nothing for fps. Ugh, back to the drawing board. :)   