What is Shader Model 4.0?

Shader Model 4.0 [SM 4.0] - the new shader model provided with DirectX 10 - consists of three programmable shaders: Vertex Shaders (VS), Pixel Shaders (PS) and Geometry Shaders (GS). All shader stages offer the same base functionality, which is implemented by the Shader Model 4.0 Common Shader Core. In addition to the base each of the three shader stages (vertex, geometry, and pixel) offers some unique functionality only to that stage. Shaders in earlier models could be authored in an intermediate assembly language. With SM 4.0 shaders are only authored in DirectX High Level Shader Language [HLSL]. Offline compilation of shaders into byte code is still supported and recommended.

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