Beyond Printf: Debugging Graphics Through Tools

This lecture was given by Dave Aronson from Nvidia and Karen Stevens from Microsoft (graphics tools division).

Main toolsets

• Windows - PIX
• Nvidia - FXTools

Use GPU & driver counters for basic performance related issues.

Shader Perf 2.0

• Test opt opportunity
• Integrated to FX Composer
• Regression analysis
• Its in Beta 2.0!
• SDK Available

FX Composer for authoring and debugging shaders.

Use PIX for:

• Game Assets (textures, shaders, vertex buffers, index buffers, etc)
• API (DirectX)

Use Nvidia tools for:

• Driver related items
• Hardware specific items

Link dump:

http://developer.nvidia.com/PerfKit

http://developer.nvidia.com/PerfHud

http://developer.nvidia.com/ShaderPerf

http://developer.nvidia.com/FXComposer