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User Interface

This section contains the following topics

• Generate the SPDL file

• Register the Shader

Generate the SPDL file

To define the user interface of a realtime shader, create a SPDL file. You can create it by hand or you can use the shader wizard that comes with the SOFTIMAGE|XSI SDK (right-click on the SPDLs folder in the XSI Plugins Tree and choose New > Shader from the context menu).

Example of a SPDL file generated by the wizard:

# SPDL Generated by XSI Shader Wizard
SPDL
Version = "2.0.0.0";
Reference = "{E4367113-30EC-4D16-9107-725EDE386618}";
PropertySet "Halo_pset"
{
   Parameter "out" output
   {
       GUID = "{B63F5024-A49D-4B7A-834F-3DB8033B42EE}";
       Type = color;
   }
   Parameter "inner_ring" input
   {
       GUID = "{56022339-041A-4DBD-8F86-4C092F0A9966}";
       Type = scalar;
       Value = 1.0;
   }
   Parameter "outer_ring" input
   {
       GUID = "{C94AF607-105B-4CD4-A065-3596B661195E}";
       Type = scalar;
       Value = 1.1;
   }
   Parameter "color" input
   {
       GUID = "{9480CAB5-6DB6-44EC-8EF9-BFC23A12363B}";
       Type = color;
       Value = 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.5;
   }
}

MetaShader "Halo_meta"
{
   Name = "Halo Shader";
   Type = texture;
}

Defaults
{
   color
   {
       UIType = "rgba";
   }
}

Layout "Default"
{
   Row
   {
       inner_ring;
       outer_ring;
   }
   Row
   {
       color;
   }
}

Plugin = Shader
{
   FileName = "Halo";
}

Register the Shader

To register the shader in XSI, open a SOFTIMAGE|XSI command prompt and type

xsibatch –i <file>.spdl

In this case, xsi should return something like:

-- Copied SPDL file C:\Documents and Settings\Alex\My Documents\Softimage\dev\Halo\Halo.spdl
        to c:\users\Alex\Softimage\XSI_4.0\Application\spdl
-- Registered file c:\users\Alex\Softimage\XSI_4.0\Application\spdl\Halo.spdl
-- Created preset file c:\users\Alex\Softimage\XSI_4.0\Data\DSPresets\Shaders/RealTime\Halo.Preset
** Warning: No associated library found.
Press [Enter] to continue...

Ignore the warning for now. Once the shader is compiled, the warning should disappear.

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