Passing an array to fragment shader for Direct2D custom effect, how do I use packoffset?

Question

I want to create a custom Direct2D effect and I was looking into the following example...

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/Direct2D-custom-image-7a1f2cb5

I see the following lines for passing parameters to the shader...

Texture2D InputTexture : register(t0);
SamplerState InputSampler : register(s0);
cbuffer constants : register(b0)
{
    float frequency : packoffset(c0.x);
    float phase     : packoffset(c0.y);
    float amplitude : packoffset(c0.z);
    float spread    : packoffset(c0.w);
    float2 center   : packoffset(c1);
};

 

I do not understand the packoffset and how to use the registers (c0, c1 etc.) and I could not find any reference as well on the internet.

My requirement is such that I need to pass 4 byte arrays each of size 256. How do I do that, if at all possible? Something like...

Texture2D InputTexture : register(t0);
SamplerState InputSampler : register(s0);
cbuffer constants : register(b0)
{
    byte set1[256] : packoffset(c0);
    byte set2[256] : packoffset(c?);
    byte set3[256] : packoffset(c?);
    byte set4[256] : packoffset(c?);
};

Which registers shall I use?

Answer 1

Ok, seems like I cannot use more than 31 constant registers. How do I pass some large data like this? Can I use some dummy texture etc?

Answer 2

I think you can use texture for any data.

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C++ DX11

Answer 3

Thanks, I will try textures.