API Guide >

# Writing a Software Shading Node

This section details how to create software shading nodes, which are used by Maya's Software renderer.

#### Topics in this section

- Overview of shading node plug-ins
- Writing a shading node plug-in
- Anatomy of a shading node plug-in
- InterpNode example code walkthrough
- Shading nodes classification
- Shading node icons for Hypershade
- Adding a custom shading node to the Hypershade
- Special shading nodes
- SuperSampling within shading nodes
- Evaluating shading nodes outside of the rendering context