How can I use a Shader in XNA to color single pixels?

Question

I have a standard 800x600 window in my XNA project. My goal is to color each individual pixel based on a rectangle array which holds boolean values. Currently I am using a 1x1 Texture and drawing each sprite in my array.

I am very new to XNA and come from a GDI background, so I am doing what I would have done in GDI, but it doesn't scale very well. I have been told in another question to use a Shader, but after much research, I still haven't been able to find out how to accomplish this goal.

My application loops through the X and Y coordinates of my rectangular array, does calculations based on each value, and reassigns/moves the array around. At the end, I need to update my "Canvas" with the new values. A smaller sample of my array would look like:

0,0,0,0,0,0,0
0,0,0,0,0,0,0
0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1,1,1,1,1,1,1
1,1,1,1,1,1,1

How can I use a shader to color each pixel?

A very simplified version of the calculations would be:

        for (int y = _horizon; y >= 0; y--)  // _horizon is my ending point
        {
            for (int x = _width; x >= 0; x--) // _width is obviously my x length.
            {
                if (grains[x, y] > 0)
                {
                    if (grains[x, y + 1] == 0)
                    {
                        grains[x, y + 1] = grains[x, y];
                        grains[x, y] = 0;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

..each time the update method is called, the calculations are performed and in example of the above loop, an update may look like:

Initial:

0,0,0,1,0,0,0
0,0,0,0,0,0,0
0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1,1,1,0,1,1,1
1,1,1,1,1,1,1

First:

0,0,0,0,0,0,0
0,0,0,1,0,0,0
0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1,1,1,0,1,1,1
1,1,1,1,1,1,1

Second:

0,0,0,0,0,0,0
0,0,0,0,0,0,0
0,0,0,1,0,0,0
1,1,1,0,1,1,1
1,1,1,1,1,1,1

Final:

0,0,0,0,0,0,0
0,0,0,0,0,0,0
0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1,1,1,1,1,1,1
1,1,1,1,1,1,1

Update:

After applying the Render2DTarget code and placing my pixels, I end up with an unwanted border on my pixels, always to the left. How can I remove this?

alt text http://www.refuctored.com/borders.png

alt text http://www.refuctored.com/fallingdirt.png

The some of the code for applying the textures is:

    RenderTarget2D target;
    Texture2D texture;
    protected override void LoadContent()
    {
        spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);
        texture = Content.Load<Texture2D>("grain");
        _width = this.Window.ClientBounds.Width - 1;
        _height = this.Window.ClientBounds.Height - 1;
        target = new RenderTarget2D(this.GraphicsDevice,_width, _height, 1, SurfaceFormat.Color,RenderTargetUsage.PreserveContents);
     }

 protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
    {
        this.GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(0, target);
        this.GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(0, null);
        this.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.SkyBlue);
        this.spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.None,SpriteSortMode.Deferred,SaveStateMode.None);
        SetPixels(texture);
        this.spriteBatch.End();
    }

 private void SetPixels(Texture2D texture)
    {
        for (int y = _grains.Height -1; y > 0; y--)
        {
            for (int x = _grains.Width-1; x > 0; x--)
            {
                if (_grains.GetGrain(x, y) >0)
                {
                    this.spriteBatch.Draw(texture, new Vector2(x,y),null, _grains.GetGrainColor(x, y));
                }
            }
        }
    }

Answer 1

This method doesn't use pixel shaders, but if you're looking to use Texture2D's SetData method instead of making a call to SpriteBatch.Draw() for every pixel, you may find this useful. I used an array of uint instead of bool to represent your colors. If you can get away with an 8-bit color texture, you could may be able to speed this up by changing the texture format.

public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game
{
    // Set width, height
    const int WIDTH = 800;
    const int HEIGHT = 600;

    // Used to randomly fill in initial data, not necessary
    Random rand;

    // Graphics and spritebatch
    GraphicsDeviceManager graphics;
    SpriteBatch spriteBatch;

    // Texture you will regenerate each call to update
    Texture2D texture;

    // Data array you perform calculations on
    uint[] data;

    // Colors are represented in the texture as 0xAARRGGBB where:
    // AA = alpha
    // RR = red
    // GG = green
    // BB = blue

    // Set the first color to red
    const uint COLOR0 = 0xFFFF0000;

    // Set the second color to blue
    const uint COLOR1 = 0xFF0000FF;

    public Game1()
    {
        graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this);
        Content.RootDirectory = "Content";

        // Set width, height
        graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = WIDTH;
        graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = HEIGHT;
    }

    protected override void Initialize()
    {
        base.Initialize();

        // Seed random, initialize array with random picks of the 2 colors
        rand = new Random((int)DateTime.Now.Ticks);
        data = new uint[WIDTH * HEIGHT];
        loadInitialData();
    }

    protected override void LoadContent()
    {
        // Create a new SpriteBatch, which can be used to draw textures.
        spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);

        // Create a new texture
        texture = new Texture2D(GraphicsDevice, WIDTH, HEIGHT);
    }

    protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
    {
        // Allows the game to exit
        if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed)
            this.Exit();

        // Run-time error without this
        // Complains you can't modify a texture that has been set on the device
        GraphicsDevice.Textures[0] = null;

        // Do the calculations
        updateData();

        // Update the texture for the next time it is drawn to the screen
        texture.SetData(data);

        base.Update(gameTime);
    }

    protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
    {
        // Draw the texture once
        spriteBatch.Begin();
        spriteBatch.Draw(texture, Vector2.Zero, Color.Purple);
        spriteBatch.End();

        base.Draw(gameTime);
    }

    private void loadInitialData()
    {
        // Don't know where the initial data comes from
        // Just populate the array with a random selection of the two colors
        for (int i = 0; i < WIDTH; i++)
            for (int j = 0; j < HEIGHT; j++)
                data[i * HEIGHT + j] = rand.Next(2) == 0 ? COLOR0 : COLOR1;

    }

    private void updateData()
    {
        // Rough approximation of calculations
        for(int y = HEIGHT - 1; y >= 0; y--)
            for (int x = WIDTH - 1; x >= 0; x--)
                if (data[x * HEIGHT + y] == COLOR1)
                    if (y + 1 < HEIGHT && data[x * HEIGHT + (y + 1)] == COLOR0)
                    {
                        data[x * HEIGHT + (y + 1)] = data[x * HEIGHT + y];
                        data[x * HEIGHT + y] = COLOR0;
                    }
    }
}