The Complete Sample

Compose the effect description using either shader assembly language (ASM) or high-level shader language (HLSL). In this example, the effect file contains a vertex shader named Transform and a technique named TransformTechnique, which applies the vertex shader in a single pass.

uniform extern float4x4 WorldViewProj : WORLDVIEWPROJECTION;

struct VS_OUTPUT
{
    float4 position : POSITION;
    float4 color : COLOR0;
};

VS_OUTPUT Transform(
    float4 Pos  : POSITION, 
    float4 Color : COLOR0 )
{
    VS_OUTPUT Out = (VS_OUTPUT)0;

    Out.position = mul(Pos, WorldViewProj);
    Out.color = Color;

    return Out;
}

float4 PixelShader( VS_OUTPUT vsout ) : COLOR
{
    return vsout.color;
}

technique TransformTechnique
{
    pass P0
    {
        vertexShader = compile vs_2_0 Transform();
        pixelShader = compile ps_1_1 PixelShader();
    }
}

Add the effect file to the Content directory of your XNA Framework game. Right-click your Content node and point to Add, and then click Existing Item. In the Files of type: drop-down list, click All Files. Navigate to your .fx file and click Add.

Tip
To create a new .fx file, point to Add, and then New Item, and then choose the Text File template. For the name of the file, use the .fx file extension.

Create a new Effect by using the ContentManager.Load<Effect> method to load the asset.

effect = Content.Load<Effect>("ReallySimpleEffect");

In the effect file, there is a parameter named WorldViewProj, which is a matrix used by the vertex shader. The following code looks up the WorldViewProj parameter in Effect.Parameters and calls EffectParameter.SetValue to initialize the value of the transform matrix.

effect.Parameters["WorldViewProj"].SetValue(worldViewProjection);

Set Effect.CurrentTechnique to the technique from the effect file you wish to apply. In this case, we use Effect.Techniques to look up the technique named TransformTechnique from the effect file.

effect.CurrentTechnique = effect.Techniques["TransformTechnique"];

Call the Effect.Begin to begin applying the technique. For each pass in the technique, draw the desired geometry between calls to EffectPass.Begin and EffectPass.End. Call Effect.End to stop applying the technique.

// The effect is a compiled effect created and compiled elsewhere
// in the application.

effect.Begin();
foreach (EffectPass pass in effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes)
{
    pass.Begin();

    graphics.GraphicsDevice.DrawIndexedPrimitives(
        PrimitiveType.TriangleList,
        0,
        0,
        cubeVertices.Length,
        0,
        12);

    pass.End();
}
effect.End();