3DS Max Dynamic Shader UI?

Posted By: bupaje

3DS Max Dynamic Shader UI? - 12/04/03 07:22

Like lots of folks I have been excited by the stuff going on in the forum regarding shaders, material effects and so on but 90% of the programmer speak about shader stuff is just out of my reach. I'll risk revealing how far out of my reach by asking is there a tool that might allow me to experiment with simple shaders useable in 3DGS as is, or at least with some simple modifications? I saw that 3DS Max mentions a Dynamic Shader UI to create shaders and save the effects files for example and someone mentioned Render Monkey.

I still have a lot to learn so realistically shaders aren't an absolute need for me in the near future but I wouldn't mind experimenting a bit if there is a simpler way than some of the rocket-science code I've been seeing.

Also I am just a scout at the forefront of a huge noob army. It is likely there will be many questions ala "what are shaders, how do I use them, how can I apply a bump map, my company needs that water shader by tomorrow to ship my game, etc" so it might be good to place a basic FAQ on shaders to stem the flood.
Posted By: msKEN

Re: 3DS Max Dynamic Shader UI? - 12/04/03 09:16

I might get slapped for this, but the cypher (sp?) engine (100 bucks like torque) comes with a very awesome WYSIWYG Shader designer. I believe it states on the website that it saves to .fx files. Might be worth checking out and asking on there forums if it works in general or just for cypher.
Posted By: jcl

Re: 3DS Max Dynamic Shader UI? - 12/04/03 18:27

There are several free tools for shader programming. A good and flexible tool is RenderMonkey from the ATI website.
Posted By: bupaje

Re: 3DS Max Dynamic Shader UI? - 12/05/03 01:59

Thanks for the replies I'll check out RenderMonkey. Maybe someone with 3DS Max can tell me if the 'Dynamic Shader UI can create these same .fx files?' Regardless since RenderMonkey is free I'll check it out right now.
Posted By: Orange Brat

Re: 3DS Max Dynamic Shader UI? - 12/05/03 04:21

Here's another, though it is only WIP at the moment. Looks promising, though probably not free:

http://www.shaderworks.com/
Posted By: MaxF

Re: 3DS Max Dynamic Shader UI? - 12/05/03 05:41

Hi Orange Brat

I believe this is only for HLSL, so we will have to wait for Conitec to update A6 so it can use DirectX 9...


Posted By: Orange Brat

Re: 3DS Max Dynamic Shader UI? - 12/05/03 06:40

Ah, I see..ah well for the future then.
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