VertexTypes

DirectXTK

The VertexTypes.h header defines these commonly used vertex data structures:

Structure	Stride
VertexPosition	12 bytes
VertexPositionColor	28 bytes
VertexPositionTexture	20 bytes
VertexPositionDualTexture	28 bytes
VertexPositionNormal	24 bytes
VertexPositionColorTexture	36 bytes
VertexPositionNormalColor	40 bytes
VertexPositionNormalTexture	32 bytes
VertexPositionNormalColorTexture	48 bytes
VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTexture	52 bytes
VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTextureSkinning	60 bytes

Header

#include <VertexTypes.h>

Input Layout

Each type also provides a D3D11_INPUT_ELEMENT_DESC array which can be used to create a matching input layout, for example:

Microsoft::WRL::ComPtr<ID3D11InputLayout> inputLayout;

device->CreateInputLayout(
    VertexPositionColorTexture::InputElements,
    VertexPositionColorTexture::InputElementCount,
    vertexShaderCode, vertexShaderCodeSize,
    inputLayout.GetAddressOf());

Usage

Position (which uses the semantic "SV_Position") is required for all rendering. This is XMFLOAT3 (DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32_FLOAT).

Normal is required for any effect that supports lighting computations. This is XMFLOAT3 (DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32_FLOAT).

Color is for per-vertex coloring used by some effects. Color is typically XMFLOAT4(DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32A32_FLOAT).

Texture coordinates (which uses the semantic "TEXCOORD0") are XMFLOAT2 (DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32_FLOAT).

DualTexture coordinates (which uses the semantic "TEXCOORD0" and "TEXCOORD1") are XMFLOAT2 (DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32_FLOAT).

Geometry formats

See DirectXMesh for more information.

Visual Studio content pipeline

VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTexture contains the vertex elements needed for using Visual Studio Shader Designer (DGSL) shaders via DGSLEffect (which requires position, normal, tangent, color, and texture coordinates) and is used when loading .CMO file models. It defines Color as a uint32_t (DXGI_FORMAT_R8G8B8A8_UNORM)

VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTextureSkinning extends VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTexture with blend weights and indices for skinning using Visual Studio Shader Designer (DGSL) shaders via DGSLEffect and is used when loading .CMO file skinned models. It defines the blend indices as uint32_t (DXGI_FORMAT_R8G8B8A8_UINT) and the blend weights as uint32_t (DXGI_FORMAT_R8G8B8A8_UNORM).

DirectX SDK SDKMESH

The .SDKMESH format describes input layouts as Direct3D 9 style vertex decls. There is therefore no specific vertex structure for .SDKMESH data and such input layouts are built on-the-fly. The Model loader attempts to create input layouts that match the needs of the standard Effects, so it can end up ignoring some of the vertex layout content if the critical content is found first.

Remarks

• DirectX Tool Kit for DX12 does not support CMO, so it does not have VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTexture or VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTextureSkinning.

• DirectX Tool Kit built-in Effects that require a tangent-space compute the tangent/bi-tangent in the shader from the normal and texture coordinates to simplify usage.

Christian Schüler, "Normal Mapping without Precomputed Tangents", ShaderX 5, Chapter 2.6, pp. 131 – 140 and this blog post