mental ray Shaders

You can develop mental ray shaders that are fully integrated in Softimage and automatically take advantage of Softimage render trees.

The render tree lets users connect shaders—or nodes—together to build a visual effect. Each node exposes a set of properties that can be dynamically linked by connecting the output of one property to the input of another and is as simple as dragging a connection line (arrow) between the input and output attachment points of the shader.

This chapter describes how to implement mental ray shaders in Softimage so that they work seamlessly with the render tree’s capabilities:

• Additional Resources on Programming mental ray Shaders for Softimage

• Setting up Your Development Environment

• Writing the Shader: An Overview

• Using the Shader Wizard

• Registering and Installing the Shader

• General Guidelines

• Getting a List of Objects

• Getting UV Data

• Lights

• Caching Data

• Accessing Particle Information

• Supporting Render Channels

• Accessing Hair Data

• Mapping Camera Settings

• Debugging Shaders on Windows

Autodesk Softimage v7.5