Microsoft DirectX 8.1 (pixel shader versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4)

Destination Register Write Masks

destination register.writemask

Write masks control which channels (red, green, blue, alpha) are updated in the destination register.

Register

Destination register. For more about register types, see Registers.

Remarks

The following destination write masks are available.

Write Mask	Syntax	Version
		1.0	1.1	1.2	1.3	1.4
red, green, blue, alpha	destination register.rgba	X	X	X	X	X
none	destination register	X	X	X	X	X
color (red, green, blue)	destination register.rgb	X	X	X	X	X
alpha	destination register.a	X	X	X	X	X
red	destination register.r					X
green	destination register.g					X
blue	destination register.b					X
arbitrary	destination register.rgba					See note below.

Note  The arbitrary mask allows any set of channels to be combined to produce a mask. The channels must be listed in the order r, g, b, a—for example, register.rba, which updates the red, blue, and alpha channels of the destination. The arbitrary mask is available only in version 1.4.

If no destination write mask is specified, the destination write mask defaults to the rgba case. In other words, all channels in the destination register are updated.

An alternate syntax for the r,g,b,a channels is x,y,z,w.

For versions 1.0 to 1.3, the dp3 arithmetic instruction can use only the .rgb or .rgba output write masks.

Destination register write masks are supported for arithmetic operations only. They cannot be used on texture addressing instructions, with the exception of the version 1.4 instructions, texcrd and texld.

Examples

default

The default is to write all four color channels.

// All four color channels can be written by explicitly listing them.
mul r0.rgba, t0, v0

// Or, the default mask can be used to write all four channels.
mul r0, t0, v0

alpha write mask

The alpha write mask is used to control writing to the alpha channel.

// The alpha write mask is also referred to as the scalar write mask, 
// because it uses the scalar pipeline.
add r0.a, t1, v1

So this instruction effectively puts the sum of the alpha component of t1 and the alpha component of v1 into r0.a.

color write mask

The color write mask is used to control writing to the color channels.

// The color write mask is also referred to as the vector write mask, 
// because it uses the vector pipeline.
mul r0.rgb, t0, v0

arbitrary write mask

For version 1.4, destination write masks can be used in any combination as long as the masks are ordered r,g,b,a.

// This example updates the red, blue, and alpha channels.
mov r0.rba, r1

co-issued instructions

A co-issued instruction allows two potentially different instructions to be issued simultaneously. This is accomplished by executing the instructions in the alpha pipeline and the RGB pipeline.

// For example, the default example shown above:
mul r0, t0, v0

// is also equivalent to the following co-issued instruction
  mul r0.rgb, t0, v0
+ mul r0.a,   t0, v0

The advantage of pairing instructions this way is that it allows different operations to be performed in the vector and scalar pipeline in parallel.