What is a pixel shader

A pixel shader is a set of program codes which is usually built into a video graphics chipset and drivers. Its purpose is to enable more lifelike lighting effects on 3d models, usually for gaming. Pixel shader technology has been instrumental in recent advancements in 3d graphics technology. Many new games require a certain level of pixel shader technology. While it is possible to emulate this using software, it is much more stable, and results in much better performance if the system is upgraded with a new video card with built-in pixel shader technology. Pixel shader 1.1 2.0 3.0 and the like refer to different versions of pixel shader technology. They are backwards compatible, so if you have pixel shader 3.0 you can run anything requiring 1.1 or 2.0 as well. Answer: A pixel shader is a type of shader program, often executed on a graphics processing unit. It is typically used for scene lighting and related effects such as bump mapping and color toning, which provide crisper and more realistic graphics. Microsoft's Direct3D and Silicon Graphics' OpenGL support pixel shaders. In OpenGL, however, a pixel shader is called a fragment shader