I'm a total beginner with Directx/3D programming. I need help with implementing hardware instancing on Directx 11. I'm trying to render multiple cubes on the screen, to create some sort of Minecraft-esque voxel engine. The problem is, I don't know where to start to achieve this. This is how my "render frame" function looks:
void RenderFrame(void)
{
D3DXMATRIX matView, matProjection;
D3DXMATRIX matFinal;
// create a view matrix
D3DXMatrixLookAtLH(&matView,
&D3DXVECTOR3(0.0f, 9.0f, 24.0f), // the camera position
&D3DXVECTOR3(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f), // the look-at position
&D3DXVECTOR3(0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f)); // the up direction
// create a projection matrix
D3DXMatrixPerspectiveFovLH(&matProjection,
(FLOAT)D3DXToRadian(45), // field of view
(FLOAT)SCREEN_WIDTH / (FLOAT)SCREEN_HEIGHT, // aspect ratio
1.0f, // near view-plane
100.0f); // far view-plane
// create the final transform
matFinal = matView * matProjection;
// clear the back buffer to a deep blue
devcon->ClearRenderTargetView(backbuffer, D3DXCOLOR(0.0f, 0.2f, 0.4f, 1.0f));
// clear the depth buffer
devcon->ClearDepthStencilView(zbuffer, D3D11_CLEAR_DEPTH, 1.0f, 0);
// select which vertex buffer to display
UINT stride = sizeof(VERTEX);
UINT offset = 0;
devcon->IASetVertexBuffers(0, 1, &pVBuffer, &stride, &offset);
devcon->IASetIndexBuffer(pIBuffer, DXGI_FORMAT_R32_UINT, 0);
// select which primtive type we are using
devcon->IASetPrimitiveTopology(D3D11_PRIMITIVE_TOPOLOGY_TRIANGLELIST);
// draw the Hypercraft
devcon->UpdateSubresource(pCBuffer, 0, 0, &matFinal, 0, 0);
devcon->DrawIndexed(24, 0, 0);
// switch the back buffer and the front buffer
swapchain->Present(0, 0);
}
Notice that there's a single vertex buffer containing the verteces of a cube, and index buffer containing its indeces. I want to render many (5000+) cubes on the screen at once on a single draw call, without performance issues, so I know instancing is the way to go, but I don't know how to implement it in my code. What changes do I need to do to my code in order to display multiple instances of the cube?
Thanks in advance!