BluffTitler stores its effects in CFX files. The format has been introduced by Outerspace Software at the release of BluffTitler version 12 as replacement for the deprecated DirectX 9 FX format.

For coders only

This page is only meant for software engineers. You do not have to understand anything on this page in order to use effects. Click here to learn how to use effects

Text and binary

Effects come in 2 versions:

The consumer editions of BluffTitler can only load CFX files. You can compile BFX to CFX with the developer edition. The developer edition is currently not for sale.

Content

• Header
• Textures
• Variables
• Widgets
• Passes
• Cascading shadow maps
• Post processing
• Vertex format
• Matrix parameters
• Vector parameters
• HLSL code

A BFX file header looks like this:

BFX 2
DESCRIPTION "This effect does this and that and also..."

Up to 9 textures can be used:

Textures are defined like this:

TEXTURE 0 COLOUR MIP * *
TEXTURE 1 DISPLACEMENT MIP * *
TEXTURE 2 CUBE MIP * *

1st string is always TEXTURE

2nd string is the texture index [0,4]

3rd string is the texture type {COLOUR, REFLECTION, CUBE, NORMAL, DEPTH, STENCIL, VOXEL, SKETCH, CARTOON, ALPHA, TONALART, DISPLACEMENT, FUR}

4th string sets mipmapping {*,MIP,LIN}. * means that the effect must not make adjustments.

5th string sets horizontal texture mode {*,CLAMP,WRAP,MIRROR}

6th string sets vertical texture mode {*,CLAMP,WRAP,MIRROR}

Textures can be accessed like this:

float4 c=MyTexture0.Sample(MySampler0, input.tex);
float4 c=MyTexture0.SampleLevel(MySampler0, input.tex, 0);

An effect file can add 16 extra properties to a layer by using the following annotations:

The 16 extra properties can be defined this way:

float4 Prop0
<
string UIName="My very own variable";
float UIMin=0;
float UIMax=10;
float3 UIDefault=float3(2,0,0);
int UISliders=1;
float UIScale=1;
bool UIInteger=true;
int UIWidget=0;
>

Every property has a widget:

A pass contains render states, links to HLSL code and other properties. A pass is defined like this:

PASS
BLENDING ADDITIVE
ZREAD Y
ZWRITE Y
RGBAWRITE 7
CULL BACK
SOLID Y
CLEARTARGET Y
VS vs_4_0 VS1
HS hs_4_0 HS1
DS ds_4_0 DS1
GS gs_4_0 GS1
PS ps_4_0 PS1

All render states are booleans {Y,N} except the following:

BLENDING can be {NONE, ALPHA, ADDITIVE, SUBTRACTIVE}

RGBAWRITE can be [0,15]. Y is accepted as 15 and N as 0.

CULL can be {FRONT, BACK, NONE}

The next pass in the same effect takes over the renderstates of the previous pass. The next effect resets the renderstates.

Every pass must have a vertex (VS) and pixel shader (PS). Hull (HS), domain (DS) and geometry shaders (GS) are optional.

The CLEARTARGET state is only used in the 2nd pass of a postprocessing effect.

When only a single light layer is using shadow maps, 4 cascading shadow maps (CSM) are created. In this situation, textures 5 (near), 6, 7 and 8 (far) are used for the 4 sub frusta.

If an effect is applied to the camera layer, the 1st texture contains the render output. This way it can be used as a post processing effect.

Pixel shader chain

If the effect has 2 passes, the output of the 1st pass is used as the input for the 2nd pass. This can be used to optimize effects, like for example a bilinear blur. Note that this convention makes normal 2 pass effects useless for the camera layer.

The render target is cleared by default. For some effects, like for example a bloom, you don't want this. It can be prevented by setting the CLEARTARGET pass property to N:

CLEARTARGET N

BluffTitler uses the following vertex format:

Meshes created with the Tubular square, Tubular round, Wireframe, Light discs, Light bulbs and Comb text layer styles abuse the tangent field to store special info: (bulb/bulbs, contour, contours)

All matrices are 4x4 homogeneous transformation matrices in row major format.

All vectors are 4D floats.

The HLSL source code (vertex, hull, domain, geometry and pixel shaders) follows after the HLSL tag:

HLSL

The compiled bytecode follows after the COMPILED tag:

COMPILED VS 0 2708

2nd string is the shader type {VS,HS,DS,GS,PS}

3rd string is the pass

4th string is the size in bytes

Shaders can be shared between passes like this:

COMPILED VS 0,1,2,3,4 2708