ShaderMark is a DirectX 9.0 pixel shader benchmark. All the vertex and pixel shader code was written in Microsoft's High Level Shading Language.
ShaderMark provides the possibility to use different compiler targets and advanced options.
This comprehensive software provides support for floating point textures and render targets.
Motivation
Currently there is no DirectX 9.0 HLSL pixel shader benchmark on the market. Futuremark's 3DMark03 and Massive's AquaMark 3.0 are bases on hand written assembler shaders or partly HLSL shaders. HLSL is the future of shader development!
The HLSL shader compiler and its different profiles have to be tested and this gap fills ShaderMark v2.1. Driver cheating is also an issue. With ShaderMark, it is easily possible to change the underlying HLSL shader code which makes it impossible to "optimize" a driver for a certain shader, instead of the whole shader pipeline. ShaderMark v2.1 is also the first pixel shader benchmark, which measures the performance of the new shader model 3.0
Picture Quality Mode
The picture quality mode allows comparison of the Microsoft reference rasterizer with the current hardware rasterizer. This works only for the default (1024x768x32 with No FSAA) settings! It will calculate an MSE for every shader.
The smaller the values, the better. Shader 18 isn't included, because the hair animation would invalidate the results.
Here are some key features of "ShaderMark":
· HLSL shaders only
· Pixel/vertex shader targets: ps_2_0, ps_2_a, ps_2_b, ps_3_0 / vs_2_0, vs_2_a, vs_3_0 with it’s advanced features
· Multiple render targets
· sRGB textures
· Picture quality mode with Mean Square Error calculation based on the picture quality of the Microsoft Reference Rasterizer
· Gamma correction through DAC or frame buffer write (FBW)
· most shaders uses an IBL (image based lighting) texture
· Auto generated mipmaps
· Command line mode for batch runs
· Width range of display options can be changed
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