HLSL debugging

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone can shed some light on ways to debug (breakpoints and steps), in a HLSL file, ideally from within VS.

I know I use to be able to do this pretty simply with VS2003, but for some reason that option has been left out in 2005/2008.

I’m looking at Pix at the moment, and I think for what I want, it seems a bit overkill (although I’m sure its powerful).

I can still wire a custom build step from my IDE to connect with FXC, passing in the appropriate switches, I just can’t set break points, and examine the values being sent into the shader, being manipulated by the shader, and being returned.

Alternatively, if there is a Pix guru in the house, with some time on their hands, I’d love to hear from them.

Regards,
Brendan.

[Anonymous]

Yep VS will give HLSL compile errors but not debug as far as I know.
All I can say is during IET course we were told PIX was the way to go. But the shaders we wrote were simple enough to correct without debugging so we never did much with PIX.

If your using FX composer there is a debugger from Nvidia which might be worth considering.
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_shader_debugger_home.html

[Anonymous]

Yep VS will give HLSL compile errors but not debug as far as I know.
All I can say is during IET course we were told PIX was the way to go. But the shaders we wrote were simple enough to correct without debugging so we never did much with PIX.

If your using FX composer there is a debugger from Nvidia which might be worth considering.
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_shader_debugger_home.html%5B/quote:fe81bf08df%5D

Ya i’ve used nvidia perfhud in the past. Requires you to set a few variables in the nvidia lib during compile time, then link to their lib. PIX is a better option though.

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