Running the FidelityFX SDK Samples

Configuration Options

The following is a list of configuration groups and options that can be overloaded for any sample through a sample’s configuration file.

Validation

Takes booleans to enable of disable CPU/GPU-based validation layers. GPU validation has serious performance implications, so use judiciously. All values default to false.

"Validation": {
  "CpuValidationLayerEnabled": false,
  "GpuValidationLayerEnabled": false
}

FeatureSupport

Feature toggles take a boolean value to enforce the need of certain feature sets, and a string of the form “SMx_y” is used to delineate the required minimum shader model support required. Setting an unsupported feature entry to true, or setting the “ShaderModel” entry to an unsupported value on your current device, with both assert in the sample and execution will halt. Defaults shown below.

"FeatureSupport": {
          "VRSTier1": false,
          "VRSTier2": false,
          "RT1.0": false,
          "RT1.1": false,
          "FP16": false,
          "ShaderModel": "SM6_0"
      }

Presentation

Presentation covers default configuration for the swapchain and related constructs. Here you can set the number of backbuffers desired, enable features like Vsync and fullscreen rendering, specify the width and height of the application swapchain, as well as the display mode to use when setting up the adapter.

Valid “Mode” entries are:

• DISPLAYMODE_LDR,

• DISPLAYMODE_HDR10_2084**,

• DISPLAYMODE_HDR10_SCRGB**,

• DISPLAYMODE_FSHDR_2084***,

• DISPLAYMODE_FSHDR_SCRGB***

** (Requires HDR capable monitor)

*** (Requires Freesync Premium Pro monitor)

"Presentation": {
  "BackBufferCount": 3,
  "Vsync": false,
  "Fullscreen": false,
  "Width": 2560,
  "Height": 1440,
  "Mode": "DISPLAYMODE_LDR"
}

Allocations

Allocations configuration group sets the sample defaults for various allocation pools used by the graphics framework. All size values represent bytes, all count values represent maximum entry count.

"Allocations": {
  "UploadHeapSize": 419430400,
  "DynamicBufferPoolSize": 15728640,
  "GPUSamplerViewCount": 300,
  "GPUResourceViewCount": 50000,
  "CPUResourceViewCount": 50000,
  "CPURenderViewCount": 100,
  "CPUDepthViewCount": 100
}

DebugOptions

Debug options are designed to be used by AMD engineers during the development of FidelityFX features, but can also be useful when investigating how the sample runs or when experimenting.

DevelopmentMode will automatically enable debug shaders, CPU validation, and DirectX memory leak detection (when in DX12 configurations).

The RenderDoc and PIX capture options will also enabled an in-application UI for taking captures.

"DebugOptions": {
  "DevelopmentMode": false,
  "DebugShaders": false,
  "EnableRenderDocCapture": false,
  "EnablePixCapture": false
}

RenderResources

Render resources is a list of resources to be created, or resource aliases to be created at framework initialization time. They are typically defined by render modules that have implicit resource needs. They are defined by providing the resource name as an object which contains a Format, and other optional flags (e.g. "RenderResolution": true will create the resource at render resolution instead of display resolution if upscaling is present).

Resource aliases add additional names that can be used to query resources from the DynamicResourcePool at run time.

Example:

"RenderResources": {
  "MotionVectorTarget": {
    "Format": "RG16_FLOAT",
    "RenderResolution": true
  },

  "GBufferMotionVectorRT": "MotionVectorTarget"
}

RenderModuleOptions

These are special case objects used in render module configuration files to dictate initialization data for the render module creation. This data can be overridden in a sample configuration file using the RenderModuleOptions special object.

Example:

"RenderModuleOptions": {
  "ZPrepass": false,
  "VariableShading":  false
}

RenderModuleOverrides

Used to override data for render module initialization. Define an entry for each render module you wish to override. Example: Overiding SkyDomeRenderModule ‘s procedural generation setting:

"RenderModuleOverrides": {
  "SkyDomeRenderModule": {
    "Procedural": true
  }
}

Content

Content blocks are used in sample configuration files to dictate the scene, camera, particles, etc. that should be loaded at runtime when running the sample. These values can be overridden from the command line interface (see below).

ParticleSpawners : This is a list of particle spawners to queue for loading at runtime. For an overview of how particles work in Cauldron, please see the reference documentation on GPUOpen.

Scenes : This is a list of glTF files to queue for loading at runtime. Can contain one or more file paths.

Camera : This is the name of the default camera entity to set as active camera. If the camera can not be found, a default camera is supplied.

SceneExposure : This is the value to use for exposure (fixed) when running the sample.

DiffuseIBL : Path to an environment map to use for diffuse image-based lighting.

SpecularIBL : Path to an environment map to use for specular image-based lighting generation.

SkyMap : Path to an environment map to use when rendering the non-procedural skydome.

Example:

"Content": {
  "ParticleSpawners": [
    {
      "Name": "FSRSpawner",
      "AtlasPath": "media/particles/atlas.dds",
      "Position": [ 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 ],
      "Sort": true,
      "Emitters": [
          {
            "Name": "Smoke",
            "SpawnOffset": [ 0.0, 0.0, 1.4 ],
            "SpawnOffsetVariance": [ 0.1, 0.0, 0.1 ],
            "SpawnVelocity": [ 0.0, 0.2, 0.0 ],
            "SpawnVelocityVariance": 1.0,
            "ParticlesPerSecond": 10,
            "Lifespan": 50.0,
            "SpawnSize": 0.4,
            "KillSize": 1.0,
            "Mass": 0.0003,
            "AtlasIndex": 0,
            "Flags": {
              "Reactive": true,
              "Streaks": false
            }
          },
        ]
    }
  ],
  "Scenes": [
    "../media/Chess/scene.gltf"
  ],
  "Camera": "Camera_1",
  "DiffuseIBL": "../media/IBL/mud_road_puresky_Diffuse.dds",
  "SpecularIBL": "../media/IBL/mud_road_puresky_Specular.dds",
  "SkyMap": "../media/IBL/mud_road_puresky_Specular.dds",
  "SceneExposure": 1.355
}

Miscellaneous Options

There are a number of options that are not affiliated to a group. FontSize : Integer point value to render fonts at. Takes DPI scaling at the OS level into account. AGSEnabled : Enables/disables use of AGS on AMD GPUs. StablePowerState : Setting this to true will attempt to set a stable power state on the device (requires Windows Developer Mode to be enabled). Note that the stable power state selected is not necessarily the highest stable performance state possible and could deviate from that significantly. InvertedDepth : Enables/disables the use of inverted infinite depth. Defaults to true. MotionVectorGeneration : Name of the render module responsible for generation of motion vector information. A value of “” means no motion vector generation. OverrideSceneSamplers : When true, will override glTF specified texture samplers (point/linear) with anisotropic samplers. Defaults to true. BuildRayTracingAccelerationStructure : When true, will enable the building and update of ray tracing bounding volume hierarchies (BVHs) when loading/updating geometry. Defaults to false.

"FontSize": 13,
"AGSEnabled": false,
"StablePowerState": false,
"InvertedDepth": true,
"MotionVectorGeneration": "",
"OverrideSceneSamplers": true,
"BuildRayTracingAccelerationStructure": false,

User Interface

Cauldron offers a dynamic UI system built for the sample being run, defined by which render modules are present. Each render module is responsible for its own UI. For individual sample-specific UI elements, please see the corresponding sample documentation for the effect in question.

Depending on which of Cauldron’s render modules are active in a sample, the following UI elements may be present

Lighting

• IBLFactor: Tweaks the amount of image-based lighting to apply to surfaces when lighting.

Limiter

• Enable FPS Limiter: Enables CPU-side frame rate limits (done via CPU sleeps)

• GPU Limiter: Enables GPU-side frame rate limits (done via GPU compute job occupancy)

Limiting the frame rate can yield more accurate rendering stats by keeping the GPU running at a more representative frequency and power state.

Magnifier

• Show Magnifier: Enables the magnifying glass inspector tool.

• Lock Position: Locks the magnifying glass at its current location.

• Screen Size: Grows and shrinks the size of the magnifying glass.

• Magnification: Increases and decreases the magnification applied in the magnification area.

Particle

• Particle animation: Enables/sisables GPU particle animation.

Post Processing

• Tone Mapper: Pick from a number of available tone mappers.

• Exposure: Sets the exposure for the scene.

Raster Shadows

• Cascades Number: Number of cascades to use when doing directional shadows.

• Cascade Split Points 0: Scene percentage point at which to end the first cascade.

• Cascade Split Points 1: Scene percentage point at which to end the second cascade.

• Cascade Split Points 2: Scene percentage point at which to end the third cascade.

• Camera Pixel Align: Snap the camera to a pixel boundary (prevents jitter).

Procedural Skydome

• Hour: Time of day component used when calculating procedural sky.

• Minute: Time of day component used when calculating procedural sky.

• Rayleigh: Rayleigh constant component used when calculating procedural sky.

• Turbidity: Turbidity component used when calculating procedural sky.

• Mie Coefficient: Mie component used when calculating procedural sky.

• Luminance: Luminance component used when calculating procedural sky.

• Mie Directional G: Ground direction used when doing Mie component calculation in procedural sky.

TAA

• Enable TAA: Enables or disables temporal anti-aliasing.

User Controls

Cauldron defines the following set of controls when navigating a sample.