Welcome to the latest volume of ShaderX! This all-new collection is packed with insightful new techniques, innovative approaches to common problems, and practical tools and tricks that will help you in all areas of shader programming. All of the articles evolved from the work and experiences of industry pros, and all of the sections were edited by shader programming experts. With the rapid advances in DirectX, OpenGL, and graphics cards, vertex and pixel shaders are becoming more widely used in high-end graphics and game development. The challenges of mastering these techniques can be daunting for new programmers, but with this comprehensive collection of ready-to-use techniques, they'll get up to speed quickly. And for the more experienced programmers, they'll find insights and tricks that will improve their efficiency and prevent redundancy. If you are involved in shader programming, this is a must-have reference for your collection.ON THE CD: The CD-ROM contains the example programs with source code accompanying the majority of chapters, as well as useful demos, and the latest Microsoft(tm) DirectX 9 System Development Kit (SDK).SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: To use all of the files on the CD-ROM, you will need the DirectX 9 summer update 2004 SDK, OpenGL 1.5 compatible graphics card, a DirectX 8, 8.1 or 9.0 compatible graphics card; Windows XP with the latest service pack; Visual C++.NET 2003, Visual Studio C/C++ 6.0, 512 MB RAM; 500 MB of free space on your hard drive; Pentium IV/ ATHLON with more than 1.5 GHZ and the latest graphics card drivers.