[RFE] Writing documentation that is useful outside the C++ ecosystem

[trsh]

By now we have game engines in Go, Rust, JavaScript, WebGpu, etc. that can make use of HLSL/GLSL shaders.
Those could probably make good use of the shader side of this Library to implement nrd denoising.
All we need would be something in a form of this:

1. Render pass 1 - [name] (is pass optional?)
   Description.
   Recommended dispatch size, etc.
   Bindings:
   1. Binding 1 - name - description, format, etc.
   2. Binding 2 - name - description, format, etc.
2. ...

Right now its just the NRDSample, huge 4k+ code with all stuff, nrd related and non directly nrd related.

[dzhdanNV]

Hi! It's an interesting point. All information is already available in a method description. For example (from REBLUR_DIFFUSE):

    enum class Permanent
    {
        PREV_VIEWZ = PERMANENT_POOL_START,
        PREV_NORMAL_ROUGHNESS,
        PREV_INTERNAL_DATA,
        DIFF_HISTORY,
        DIFF_FAST_HISTORY_PING,
        DIFF_FAST_HISTORY_PONG,
    };

    m_PermanentPool.push_back( {REBLUR_FORMAT_PREV_VIEWZ, w, h, 1} );
    m_PermanentPool.push_back( {REBLUR_FORMAT_PREV_NORMAL_ROUGHNESS, w, h, 1} );
    m_PermanentPool.push_back( {REBLUR_FORMAT_PREV_INTERNAL_DATA, w, h, 1} );
    m_PermanentPool.push_back( {REBLUR_FORMAT, w, h, 1} );
    m_PermanentPool.push_back( {REBLUR_FORMAT_FAST_HISTORY, w, h, 1} );
    m_PermanentPool.push_back( {REBLUR_FORMAT_FAST_HISTORY, w, h, 1} );

    enum class Transient
    {
        DATA1 = TRANSIENT_POOL_START,
        DATA2,
        DIFF_TMP1,
        DIFF_TMP2
    };

    m_TransientPool.push_back( {Format::RG8_UNORM, w, h, 1} );
    m_TransientPool.push_back( {Format::RG8_UNORM, w, h, 1} );
    m_TransientPool.push_back( {REBLUR_FORMAT, w, h, 1} );
    m_TransientPool.push_back( {REBLUR_FORMAT, w, h, 1} );
    
    ...

    for (int i = 0; i < REBLUR_HISTORY_FIX_PERMUTATION_NUM; i++)
    {
        PushPass("History fix");
        {
            // Inputs
            PushInput( AsUint(ResourceType::IN_NORMAL_ROUGHNESS) );
            PushInput( AsUint(Transient::DATA1) );
            PushInput( DIFF_TEMP2 );
            PushInput( AsUint(ResourceType::IN_VIEWZ) );
            PushInput( AsUint(Permanent::DIFF_FAST_HISTORY_PONG), 0, 1, AsUint(Permanent::DIFF_FAST_HISTORY_PING) );

            // Outputs
            PushOutput( DIFF_TEMP1 );

            // Shaders
            AddDispatch( REBLUR_Diffuse_HistoryFix, REBLUR_HISTORY_FIX_CONSTANT_NUM, REBLUR_HISTORY_FIX_NUM_THREADS, 1 );
            AddDispatch( REBLUR_Perf_Diffuse_HistoryFix, REBLUR_HISTORY_FIX_CONSTANT_NUM, REBLUR_HISTORY_FIX_NUM_THREADS, 1 );
        }
    }

I.e. there is a hpp file for each method. It contains all the logic, which I definitely don't want to repeat / echo in README. This logic defines:

• inputs & outputs
• transient pool textures with sizes and formats
• permanent pool textures with sizes and formats
• passes with associated data and bindings (for all permutations)
• pass invoking logic

Will it work for you?

[trsh]

To be honest I don't understand this. I have worked before on SVGF implementation, and the inputs where like albedo, depth map, variance map, output etc. Here we have permanent and transient pools, inputs that I also don't understand (AsUint(Transient::DATA1) ?), etc.

Update:

Ok I see ResourceType has some useful comments. Still lot of investigating here...

Question

So pools are just free textures for RW to exchange information between passes?

[dzhdanNV]

Yes, of course "understanding of data" requires minimal knowledge of C/C++ but I clearly see that it can be "recreated" in other languages. There is an additional inconvenience, because in a single denoising method there are several code paths... do you need all of them? it's up to you. But most likely you need to choose one - using the one way or another understand the order of passes and grab the associated data.

NRD integration has NRD_INTEGRATION_DEBUG_LOGGING macro which can be used to dump the sequence of passes for currently specified settings with all associated resources and their bindings.

AsUint(Transient::DATA1)

The resource DATA1 (the first one, because it's the beginning of the transient pool) from the transient pool.

[trsh]

Thank you for suggestions. I try to look into it and come back with results/questions.

[dzhdanNV]

Closing as "will never fix". High-level code of denoisers in NRD (C++ files in "Denoisers" folder) has been designed to be self-exploratory. Plus, since v4.4.0 shared C++/HLSL headers simplify understanding of shader constants.