HLSL semantics

No, HLSL will not calculate it for you. You have to do it yourself, and then set it. When you are using Nvidia's FX Composer or ATI's RenderMonkey, it automatically searches for semantics in the file, and binds them to the appropriate matrix/texture/vector/constant. In your own applications, you have to do this yourself. Here is an example:

// wvpHandle is of type D3DXHANDLE// effect is of type ID3DXEffect*InitEffects(){   // Load the effect, compile it...      // Now find the matrix with the semantic WorldViewProjection   if( NULL == ( wvpHandle = effect->GetParameterBySemantic( NULL, "WorldViewProjection" ) ) )   {      // wvpHandle is null, it couldn't be found      // Handle accordingly   }}Render(){   // Begin the effect, set the technique...   // Calculate the WorldViewProjection matrix   D3DXMATRIX matWVP = matWorld * matView * matProj;   // Set matWVP as the WorldViewProjection matrix in the shader   effect->SetMatrix( wvpHandle, &matWVP );   // Render the object, end effect...}

The useful part about doing it this way is that you can actually define your own semantics, if needed. For example, you could define your own texture semantic scheme for all of your shaders:
- Diffuse semantic indicates it's the diffuse texture
- Normal semantic indicates it's the normal mapping texture
And so on...

The nice thing about this is that you don't have to keep all of the same variable names in all of your shaders - just the semantics.

HIHI!
oh cool, so get the param by semantics, i was doing a get param by name earlier...right!

thx!
Edwinz