Flexible Vertex Format Flags

Article
06/30/2006

The flexible vertex format (FVF) is used to describe the contents of vertices stored interleaved in a single data stream. A FVF code is generally used to specify data to be processed by fixed function vertex processing.

The following tables show the flags that describe a vertex format. For information regarding vertex formats, see About Vertex Formats.

Flexible vertex format (FVF) flags

Flag	Description
D3DFVF_DIFFUSE	Vertex format includes a diffuse color component.
D3DFVF_NORMAL	Vertex format includes a vertex normal vector. This flag cannot be used with the D3DFVF_XYZRHW flag.
D3DFVF_PSIZE	Vertex format specified in point size. This size is expressed in camera space units for vertices that are not transformed and lit, and in device-space units for transformed and lit vertices.
D3DFVF_SPECULAR	Vertex format includes a specular color component.
D3DFVF_XYZ	Vertex format includes the position of an untransformed vertex. This flag cannot be used with the D3DFVF_XYZRHW flag.
D3DFVF_XYZRHW	Vertex format includes the position of a transformed vertex. This flag cannot be used with the D3DFVF_XYZ or D3DFVF_NORMAL flags.
D3DFVF_XYZB1 through D3DFVF_XYZB5	Not supported in Windows CE.

Texture-related FVF flags

Flag	Description
D3DFVF_TEX0 through D3DFVF_TEX8	Number of texture coordinate sets for this vertex. The actual values for these flags are not sequential.
D3DFVF_TEXTUREFORMAT1 through D3DFVF_TEXTUREFORMAT4	Number of values that define a texture coordinate set. The D3DFVF_TEXTUREFORMAT1 indicates one-dimensional texture coordinates, D3DFVF_TEXTUREFORMAT2 indicates two-dimensional texture coordinates, and so on. These flags are rarely used alone; they are used with the D3DFVF_TEXCOORDSIZEn macros.

Mask values

Flag	Description
D3DFVF_POSITION_MASK	Mask for position bits.
D3DFVF_RESERVED0 and D3DFVF_RESERVED2	Mask values for reserved bits in the flexible vertex format. Do not use.
D3DFVF_TEXCOUNT_MASK	Mask value for texture flag bits.

Miscellaneous

Flag	Description
D3DFVF_LASTBETA_UBYTE4	Not supported in Windows CE.
D3DFVF_TEXCOUNT_SHIFT	Number of bits by which to shift an integer value that identifies the number of a texture coordinates for a vertex.

The following example shows how the D3DFVF_TEXCOUNT_SHIFT value might be used.

    DWORD dwNumTextures = 1;  // Vertex has only one set of 
// coordinates.
 
    // Shift the value for use when creating an FVF combination.
    dwFVF = dwNumTextures<<D3DFVF_TEXCOUNT_SHIFT;
 
    /*
     * Now, create an FVF combination using the shifted value.
     */

The following example shows some other common flag combinations.

    // Lightweight, untransformed vertex for lit, untextured,
    // Gouraud-shaded content.
    dwFVF = ( D3DFVF_XYZ | D3DFVF_DIFFUSE );
 
    // Untransformed vertex for unlit, untextured, Gouraud-shaded 
    // content with diffuse material color specified per vertex.
    dwFVF = ( D3DFVF_XYZ | D3DFVF_NORMAL | D3DFVF_DIFFUSE );
 
    // Untransformed vertex for light-map-based lighting.
    dwFVF = ( D3DFVF_XYZ | D3DFVF_TEX2 );
 
    // Transformed vertex for light-map-based lighting 
    // with shared rhw.
    dwFVF = ( D3DFVF_XYZRHW | D3DFVF_TEX2 );
 
    // Heavyweight vertex for unlit, colored content with two 
    // sets of texture coordinates.
    dwFVF = ( D3DFVF_XYZ | D3DFVF_NORMAL | D3DFVF_DIFFUSE | 
              D3DFVF_SPECULAR | D3DFVF_TEX2 );

Share via

Flexible Vertex Format Flags

See Also

Additional resources