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Name
EXT_provoking_vertex
Name Strings
GL_EXT_provoking_vertex
Contributors
Cynthia Allison, NVIDIA
Gregory Roth, NVIDIA
Daniel Koch, TransGaming
Gavriel State, TransGaming
Jason Green, TransGaming
Ian Romanick, Intel
Marcus Steyer, NVIDIA
Pat Brown, NVIDIA
Stefan Dosinger, CodeWeavers
Henri Verbeet, CodeWeavers
Contact
Mark Kilgard, NVIDIA (mjk 'at' nvidia.com)
Status
Implemented by NVIDIA, March 2009
Version
Last Modified Date: May 11, 2009
Version: 12
Number
364
Dependencies
This extension is written against the OpenGL 2.1 Specification but
can apply to any prior specification.
ARB_geometry_shader4, EXT_geometry_shader4, NV_geometry_shader4,
and NV_gpu_program4 interact with this extension
EXT_transform_feedback, NV_transform_feedback, and the transform
feedback functionality made core by OpenGL 3.0 are clarified by
this extension.
Overview
This extension provides an alternative provoking vertex convention
for rendering lines, triangles, and (optionally depending on the
implementation) quads.
The provoking vertex of a primitive is the vertex that determines the
constant primary and secondary colors when flat shading is enabled.
In OpenGL, the provoking vertex for triangle, quad, line, and
(trivially) point primitives is the last vertex used to assemble
the primitive. The polygon primitive is an exception in OpenGL where
the first vertex of a polygon primitive determines the color of the
polygon, even if actually broken into triangles and/or quads.
See section 2.14.7 (Flatshading) of the OpenGL 2.1 specification,
particularly Table 2.12 for more details.
Alternatively the provoking vertex could be the first vertex of
the primitive. Other APIs with flat-shading functionality such
as Reality Lab and Direct3D have adopted the "first vertex of the
primitive" convention to determine the provoking vertex. However,
these APIs lack quads so do not have a defined provoking vertex
convention for quads.
The motivation for this extension is to allow applications developed
for APIs with a "first vertex of the primitive" provoking vertex to
be easily converted to OpenGL.
New Procedures and Functions
void ProvokingVertexEXT(enum mode);
New Tokens
Accepted by the <mode> parameter of ProvokingVertexEXT:
FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT 0x8E4D
LAST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT 0x8E4E
Accepted by the <pname> parameter of GetBooleanv, GetIntegerv,
GetFloatv, and GetDoublev:
PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT 0x8E4F
QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT 0x8E4C
Additions to Chapter 2 of the OpenGL 2.1 Specification (OpenGL Operation)
-- Section 2.14.7 "Flatshading" (page 69)
Replace the entire section with:
"A primitive may be flatshaded, meaning that all vertices of the
primitive are assigned the same color index or the same primary or
secondary colors. These colors are the colors of the vertex that
spawned the primitive. Table 2.12 summaries the possibilities.
Flatshading is controlled by
void ShadeModel(enum shadeMode);
void ProvokingVertexEXT(enum provokeMode);
shadeMode value must be either the symbolic constants SMOOTH or FLAT.
If shadeMode is SMOOTH (the initial state), the vertex colors are
treated individually. If shadeMode is FLAT, flatshading is turned on.
provokeMode value must be either FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT
or LAST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT. If provokeMode is
LAST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT (the initial state), the "last vertex
convention" column of table 2.12 applies when flat shading; otherwise,
the "first vertex convention" column applies when flat shading.
The provoking vertex behavior of quad primitives is implementation
dependent. Implementations can choose to either respect (follow)
the state set by ProvokingVertexEXT for quad primitives (and, in
this case, return true for the QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT
implementation-dependent state) or unconditionally implement the
last vertex convention for quad primitives (and, in this case,
return false for QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT).
ShadeModel and ProvokingVertexEXT each require one bit of state.
First vertex Last vertex
Primitive type of polygon i convention convention
=========================== ============ ==================================================
point i i <- same
independent line 2i-1 2i
line loop i i+1, if i<n
1, if i==n
line strip i i+1
independent triangle 3i-2 3i
triangle strip i i+2
triangle fan i+1 i+2
independent quad 4i-3 4i, if QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT = true
4i 4i, if QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT = false <- same
quad strip 2i-1 2i+2, if QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT = true
2i+2 2i+2, if QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT = false <- same
single polygon (i=1) 1 1 <- same
line adjacency 4i-2 4i-1
line strip adjacency i+1 i+2
triangle adjacency 6i-5 6i-1
triangle strip adjacency 2i-1 2i+3
Table 2.12: Polygon flatshading color selection. The color used for
flat shading the ith polygon generated by the indicated Begin/End
type are derived from the current color (if lighting is disabled)
in effect when the indicated vertex is specified. If lighting
is enabled or a vertex shader is used, the colors are produced
by lighting or vertex shading (respectively) the indicated vertex.
Vertices are numbered 1 through n, where n is the number of vertices
between the Begin/End pair."
Additions to Chapter 3 of the OpenGL 2.1 Specification (Rasterization)
None
Additions to Chapter 4 of the OpenGL 2.1 Specification (Per-Fragment
Operations and the Frame Buffer)
None
Additions to Chapter 5 of the OpenGL 2.1 Specification (Special
Functions)
None
Additions to Chapter 6 of the OpenGL 2.1 Specification (State and
State Requests)
None
Additions to the AGL/GLX/WGL Specifications
None
Additions to the OpenGL Shading Language
None
Dependencies on ARB_geometry_shader4, EXT_geometry_shader4,
NV_geometry_shader4, and/or NV_gpu_program4:
If none of ARB_geometry_shader4, EXT_geometry_shader4,
NV_geometry_shader4, or NV_gpu_program4 are supported, ignore
the rows of table 2.12 for line adjacency, line strip adjacency,
triangle adjacency, and triangle strip adjacency.
Dependencies on EXT_transform_feedback, NV_transform_feedback, and/or the
transform feedback functionality integrated into the core by OpenGL 3.0:
Clarify the statement describing when transform feedback occurs
(in section 2.18 of the OpenGL 3.1 specification) to read:
"The vertices are fed back after vertex color clamping, but before
flatshading and clipping."
(The "flatshading and" phrase is newly clarifying.)
GLX Protocol
A new GL rendering command is added. The following command is sent to the
server as part of a glXRender request:
ProvokingVertexEXT
2 8 rendering command length
2 4227 rendering command opcode
4 ENUM provokeMode
Errors
INVALID_ENUM is generated when ProvokingVertexEXT is called with
a <provokeMode> that is not either FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT or
LAST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT.
New State
(table 6.11, page 276) add the following entry:
Get Value Type Get Command Initial Value Description Sec Attribute
-------------------- ---- ----------- -------------------------- ---------------- ------ ---------
PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT Z2 GetIntegerv LAST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT Provoking vertex 2.14.7 lighting
convention
(table 6.36, page 301) add the following entry:
Get Value Type Get Command Initial Value Description Sec Attribute
--------------------------------- ---- ----------- ------------- ----------------- ------ ---------
QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT B GetBooleanv - True if quad 2.14.7 -
primitives follow
provoking vertex
convention
New Implementation Dependent State
None
NVIDIA Implementation Details
GeForce 8 (G8x, G9x, GT1xx) and up GPUs report true for
QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT.
GeForce 6 and 7 (NV4x, G7x) GPUs report false for
QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT.
Issues
1. What should this extension be called?
RESOLVED: EXT_provoking_vertex
The phrase "provoking vertex" is not used in the core OpenGL
specification but it is the accepted jargon for the functionality
in question.
2. How should quads be handled?
RESOLVED: Ideally, quadrilateral primitives (GL_QUADS and
GL_QUAD_STRIP) would follow the provoking vertex mode.
Other existing APIs with different flatshading conventions do
not support quads.
Rather than force support for both the first and last convention
for quads (which no other API supports), instead this extension
provides implementations the flexibility to advertise whether
or not quads respect the provoking vertex or not.
This resolution ensures more hardware vendors can support
this extension. Hardware vendors which support both OpenGL and
Direct3D's provoking vertex conventions must have support for
"first vertex" for triangles and lines because Direct3D demands
these conventions. Direct3D does not demand a convention for
quads. However every vendor supporting OpenGL can support the
"last vertex" mode for quads. Leaving the quad behavior up
to the OpenGL implementation means hardware can simply always
switch to the OpenGL quad behavior when emitting quads.
See issue #12 for more details about how the
implementation-dependent handling of quads is advertised.
3. How should the specification language be written for this
extension?
RESOLVED: Update table 2.12 for all supported primitives.
The current language describes how points and lines are handled
in prose but the behavior for triangles, quads, and polygons is
specified in table 2.12.
Put all the Begin/End batch types in a single table with two
columns specifying the "first vertex convention" and "last vertex
convention" provoking vertex modes respectively.
A unified table is less ambiguous than a combination of a table
and prose.
4. What token names for the provoking vertex conventions should
be used?
RESOLVED: GL_FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT and
GL_LAST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT (the initial state, consistent
with OpenGL's unextended operation).
The word "convention" is used because (see issue #2), the "first
vertex" or "last vertex" rules are not iron-clad as they may or
may do not apply to quads.
The provoking vertex behavior for polygons and triangle fans
also isn't strictly first or last vertex: Polygons always use
the first vertex (no matter the provoking vertex convention).
Triangle fans don't really use the first vertex (the spoke vertex)
when using the "first vertex" provoking vertex rule; see issue #7.
5. IRIS GL had a provoking vertex convention for polygons where the
last vertex of a polygon primitive determined the flat shaded
color of the polygon. Should we support this convention?
RESOLVED: No.
Interesting IRIS GL applications relying on this convention
are assuredly non-existent at this point. This convention
also requires waiting until all the vertices for a polygon
(which OpenGL does not bound) are specified before the polygon
can begin being rasterized. The IRIS GL convention was dubious
for this reason and OpenGL's designers were correct to abandon
IRIS GL's polygon provoking vertex convention.
6. How should line loops behave?
RESOLVED: Line loops in GL_FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT mode
should behave as though it were a line strip with the first
vertex repeated at the end. In other words, the first vertex
of the line loop provokes the color for the line primitive that
closes the line loop.
Direct3D does not support line loops.
7. How are triangle fans handled?
RESOLVED: The first vertex of a triangle fan is the spoke vertex.
Triangle fans in GL_FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT mode should use
the first non-spoke vertex of the primitive as the provoking
vertex. In other words, the spoke vertex is never the provoking
vertex (in either convention).
The rationale for this is to match DirectX 9's triangle
fan behavior. The rationale for the DirectX 9 behavior is
(presumably) that if the spoke vertex was considered the "first
vertex" of every primitive in a triangle fan, every flat shaded
primitive in a triangle fan would necessarily have the spoke
vertex's color, which isn't very interesting.
(DirectX 10 does not support triangle fans.)
8. How does the provoking vertex convention affect primitives
generated by a geometry shader?
RESOLVED: The provoking vertex convention affects primitives
whether they are generated by geometry shaders or conventional
(non-geometry shader) primitive assembly.
Geometry shaders only generate point, line strips, and triangle
strips (not line loops, triangle fans, polygons, or quads).
(So the GL_QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT is
irrelevant when a geometry program or shader is active.)
This makes the supporting the first and last vertex conventions
for primitives generated by geometry shaders "simple" because in
the points, line strip, and triangle strip cases, the convention
really is to use either first or last vertex to define the
provoking vertex (no caveats).
There's no special specification language to support the fact that
the provoking vertex convention applies to primitives generated
by geometry shaders because flat shading behavior is described
in Chapter 3's rasterization discussion which is all subsequent
to the geometry shader processing inserted into Chapter 2.
DirectX 10 geometry shaders can output flat attributes according
to Direct3D's "first vertex provokes" convention for line and
triangle output primitives from a geometry shader. So matching
the DirectX 10 geometry shader behavior for flat shading requires
setting the provoking vertex to GL_FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT.
This said, the OpenGL default convention of "last vertex" for the
provoking vertex tends to be more useful for geometry shaders.
By deferring the computation of the flat shaded color to the
last vertex of every primitive, that tends to give the geometry
shader compiler the maximum allowance for scheduling computation
and texturing operations required to compute the flat shaded
color as long as possible (that is, until the last vertex of
the primitive).
9. Should there be an OPTION or #pragma for geometry shader assembly
and GLSL respectively to request the specific provoking vertex
convention for the shader?
RESOLVED: No.
The provoking vertex is context state that doesn't belong within
a shader as a pragma anymore than the stencil state belongs
within the shader. Overriding context state based on a pragma
in a shader introduces unfortunate validation interactions that
will slow down shader binds.
Geometry shaders written for DirectX 10 and using flat attributes
expect the "first vertex" provoking vertex convention but the
application is better off specifying the proper provoking vertex
convention for shaders just as is done with other context state.
TransGaming supports this resolution to not support a pragma.
10. How do geometry shader input primitives interact with this
extension?
RESOLVED: Table 2.12 includes the new primitives types
introduced by geometry shaders (GL_LINES_ADJACENCY_ARB,
GL_LINE_STRIP_ADJACENCY_ARB, GL_TRIANGLES_ADJACENCY_ARB, and
GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP_ADJACENCY_ARB). However the entries for these
primitive types are only relevant when these new primitive types
are used with NO geometry shader enabled.
When a geometry shader is enabled, the only primitive output types
are points, line strips, and triangle strips.
11. To what attribute set should the provoking vertex belong?
RESOLVED: Lighting (GL_LIGHTING_BIT).
This is because the provoking vertex bit is described in the
same context as the shade model (GL_SHADE_MODEL) setting, and
the shade model state is part of the lighting attribute set.
12. How should the allowance for handling quadrilateral primitives
be advertised?
RESOLVED: Because this extension is intended to facilitate
supporting Direct3D content that depends on the Direct3D's
provoking vertex convention yet Direct3D does not support quad
primitives (as OpenGL provides with GL_QUAD_STRIP and GL_QUADS),
the particular provoking vertex behavior of quads is not crucial
to this extension's intended application.
In the interest of making this extension's functionality for
triangle and line primitives broadly available (the primitives
Direct3D does support with a first vertex provoking vertex
convention), this extension does not mandate a single uniform
behavior for quad primitives. Mandating a particular behavior
for quad primitives would, for some implementations, encumber the
performance of this extension in the non-quad case or make this
implementation of this extension needlessly complex to implement.
Instead the GL_QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT
implementation-dependent boolean indicates whether or not quads
(generated by GL_QUADS or GL_QUAD_STRIP) should abide by the
provoking vertex convention or not.
Whether or not the GL_QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT
state is true or false, the provoking vertex behavior of quads
is well-defined in either case.
The recommended, though implementation-dependent, value for
GL_QUADS_FOLLOW_PROVOKING_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT is true because
this means quads, will like lines and triangles, follow the
GL_PROVOKING_VERTEX_EXT state as indicated.
13. How does the provoking vertex state interact with primitive
restart?
RESOLVED: Orthogonally so no specific specification language
describing the interaction is required.
Specifically a primitive restart acts as a glEnd/glBegin
sequence so it restarts the primitive numbering to 1 for the
vertex immediately following the restart index.
14. Should the provoking vertex behavior apply to both the primary
and secondary color?
RESOLVED: Yes, the provoking vertex decides both the primary and
secondary color of a flat-shaded primitive. That's consistent
with Direct3D's provoking vertex convention as well as OpenGL's
current behavior.
15. Should the provoking vertex behavior be specified with a
glEnable/glDisable token instead of glProvokingVertexEXT?
RESOLVED: The provoking vertex API is closely related
to glShadeModel which uses an enumerated mode rather than
glEnable/glDisable to specify flat or smooth shading so the API
mimics the glShadeModel approach.
This results in a fairly readable API usage that is more easily
groaked by unfamiliar programmers:
glProvokingVertexEXT(GL_FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT);
instead of:
glEnable(GL_FIRST_VERTEX_CONVENTION_EXT);
It is also not clear that the provoking vertex convention is
really a single enable. The convention behaves differently
depending on the primitive type. For example, GL_POLYGON always
uses the first vertex as the provoking vertex regardless of the
provoking vertex state.
16. Does the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) 1.30 "flat" varying
qualifier respect the provoking vertex state?
RESOLVED: Yes.
The GLSL 1.30 specification says "This variable [qualified as
flat] will come from a single provoking vertex, as described by
the OpenGL Graphics System Specification." This extension amends
how the provoking vertex is described so no GLSL specification
update is required. This does imply that user-declared varyings
in a GLSL shader declared with "flat" will have the provoking
vertex convention applied to determine their value.
17. How does the provoking vertex apply to Direct3D 10?
RESOLVED: Direct3D 10 has deprecated the D3DSHADEMODE state for
controlling flat or smooth (Gouraud) shading. However there is
still the concept of a provoking vertex (called the "leading
vertex" by Direct3D 10) which still corresponds to this
extension's "first vertex" convention.
Use of the leading (provoking) vertex for constant (flat)
interpolation is indicated by Direct3D 10's "nointerpolation"
variable storage class (sometimes called an interpolation
modifier).
18. Does the NV_gpu_program4 "FLAT" attribute modifier respect the
provoking vertex state?
RESOLVED: Yes. NVIDIA's NV_gpu_program4 extension, describing
an OpenGL assembly for Shader Model 4.0, allows a FLAT modifier
to be specified for fragment program inputs. The NV_gpu_program4
specification says "If an attribute is flat-shaded, it will be
taken from the output attribute of the provoking vertex of the
primitive using the same data type." This extension amends
how the provoking vertex is described so no NV_gpu_program4
specification update is required.
19. How does this extension interact with transform feedback?
RESOLVED: Attribute components written out by transform feedback
are NOT affected by the flatshading or provoking vertex state.
While this specification is written against OpenGL 2.1, transform
feedback was made core functionality with OpenGL 3.0 and then
the order of the transform feedback was moved in the OpenGL
3.1 specification. Therefore the subsequent discussion uses
the more recent 3.1 sectioning.
Specifically the OpenGL 3.1 specification (section 2.18: Transform
Feedback) says "The vertices are fed back after vertex color
clamping, but before clipping."
This statement is unclear because flatshading (section 2.13.7:
Flatshading) happens inbetween vertex color clamping (section
2.13.6: Clamping or Masking) and primitive clipping (section 2.20:
Primitive Clipping).
Base on this issue the sentence is clarified to read: "The
vertices are fed back after vertex color clamping, but before
[flatshading and] clipping."
For reference, the original EXT_transform_feedback extension has
this same language ("The vertices are fed back after vertex color
clamping, but before clipping.") but follows that sentence with:
"If a geometry shader is active, the vertices recorded are those
emitted from the geometry shader." Technically geometry shading
takes place prior to even vertex color clamping.
Clearly flat shading needs to happen prior to clipping so that
clipped vertices can share the flat shaded attributes of the
primitive prior to any potential clipping.
This resolution is consistent with DirectX 10's behavior.
Technically, DirectX 10 says that vertices output through
transform feedback (which DirectX 10 calls "stream output")
only have to be defined for constant attributes of the primitive's
leading vertex (constant attributes are those that OpenGL would
call flatshaded). Other constant attributes for non-leading
vertices may be undefined. Leaving such constant attributes
undefined is undesirable, particularly given how OpenGL operates.
It is well-defined and more useful to simply output the value
of the vertex's attribute prior to any flatshading. This is
particularly desirable for OpenGL because with this extension
(and even prior to supporting this extension), the provoking
vertex is not always the leading vertex.
To clarify further, while this resolution is consistent with
DirectX 10, an OpenGL implementation that supports transform
feedback has no undefined behavior specified. The simplest way
to describe what happens is that attribute components written
out by transform feedback are the attribute component values
of vertices AFTER (optional) geometry shading and vertex color
clamping but PRIOR to flatshading and primitive clipping.
Revision History
Rev. Date Author Changes
---- -------- --------- ---------------------------------------------
12 5/11/09 mjk Resolve issue 12 with feedback from
Daniel Koch
11 4/17/09 mjk grammar and typo fixes
10 3/26/09 mjk typo fixes, more contributors listed, clarify
transform feedback interaction
9 3/12/09 mjk dependencies on geometry shading extensions
8 3/11/09 mjk Fix issues 2, 4 & 7, add issues 16, 17, & 18
7 3/7/09 mjk Fix line adj typo, re-order table
6 3/3/09 mjk Assign enums, add issues 11-15
5 1/16/08 mjk Geometry shader interactions
4 1/6/08 mjk Add line loop behavior,
change triangle fan
3 1/31/07 mjk Jamie review feedback
2 1/24/07 mjk Fix quad entries in table
1 1/11/07 mjk Initial version