Maya HLSL Shader - lcNextGenShader.fx

chronic

I'd like to share with you a real-time HLSL Shader for Maya’s Viewport that I wrote as part of my exploration into the wonderful world of HLSL.
Try it out, and if you like it, let me know!

Updated - 11/30/2009: lcNextGenShader_1.2.fx

Updated: lcNextGenShader_1.15.fx

My Original Blog Post

lcNextGenShader_1.1.fx

Download: lcNextGenShader_1.1.fx
Sample Cube Map: default_env_map.dds





Texture Support: the most compatible formats are tga and dds (other 8 bit formats may work - no guarantees)

Techniques:

NextGen_SM3 – full shading (requires shader model 3 capable graphics card)

Diffuse_Texture_Only – only the diffuse texture or color, without any other effects

Normal_Map_As_Color – only the normal map color values (helps to find seams)

Specular_Only_SM3 – only the specular effects, light and specular map contributions (requires shader model 3 capable graphics)

Parameters:

backFaceLighting – for single sided polygon objects, the back sides will be lit correctly

ambientColor – a color ‘added’ on top of the final effect

diffuseColor – the Lambert diffuse shading color

specularColor – the Phong specular shading color

glossiness – controls the size of the Phong specular highlight

useDiffuseTexture – use the diffuse texture from ‘diffuseMap’ instead of diffuseColor

transparencyInDiffuse – use the diffuseMap’s alpha channel for transparency

specularInDiffuse – use the diffuseMap’s alpha channel for specular masking

diffuseMap – a diffuse texture

useNormalTexture – use a tangent space normal map texture

specularInNormal – use the normalMap’s alpha channel for specular masking

normalPower – intensity of the normal map effect, 0=no effect

flipGreen – invert the green channel of the normal map (default = true)

normalMap – a tangent space normal map texture

useSpecularMap – use a specularMap for specular coloring and masking

specularMap – a specular texture for highlight coloring and masking

useAmbEnv – use cubeEnvMap for ambient environment lighting – cube map is forced down in mip levels – make sure to use a cube map processed by ATI CubeMapGen for proper filtering

ambPower – intensity of the ambient environment lighting – also multiplied with the ambientColor

useReflEnv - use cubeEnvMap for environment reflections

reflPower – intensity of the environment reflections (has a slight hardcoded Fresnel effect)

cubeEnvMap – a cube map – preferably one processed by ATI CubeMapGen for proper filtering

useGlowTexture – use glowMap for self illumination effects

glowPower – the intensity of the self illumination effect

glowMap – a texture that is ‘added’ on top of the final shader result – self illumination/incandescence

useLightFalloff – use falloff on the point lights

decayScale – scale of the light falloff for the point lights

Light1 is a directional light, lights 2 and 3 are point lights


Note: There are some issues with overlapping transparency planes in Maya’s viewport when using realtime shaders – unfortunately this seems to be a problem with Maya and not the HLSL code itself – so there is no fix available.

malcolm

What type of lights does it support besides point lights?

kodde

Looking cool. Will give it a go when I have some spare time.

chronic

hlsl shaders for maya have hard-coded lights, light 1 is a directional light - lights 2 and 3 are point lights
link the proper light type to the light 1, 2, 3 slots.

bugo

great job man, gonna try it out. I see two things missing which is fresnel and specular power (spec alpha maybe?)

chronic

specular color doubles as specular power/intensity, just overdrive the color value as necessary

i really should fix the Fresnel code in the shader, currently its hard-coded into the reflection component only, i'll fix it later in the week to be more fully exposed and tweak-able.

chronic

UPDATE

Download: lcNextGenShader_1.15.fx

Update to the shader includes:

Fresnel attributes (fresnel no longer hard coded and now affects both cubemap reflections and specularity)

frBias – changes how far across the surface the effect occurs

frETA – bumps up the intensity in the ‘center’ area

frPower – Power/intensity multiplier on the entire effect

willy-wilson

sweet! transparent water, had to see if i could do it. did this really quick but it works

Frump

This looks awesome, I'm going to have to try it out. It will be nice to have a maya viewport shader which supports multiple lights.

Philly13

Quite excited about trying it out, is it compatible with XP 32 bit and Maya 2009? Tried a few other real time shaders in Maya but they needed a 64bit system Thanks for this man!

Philly13

Just got back from work and tried this - this is great man, thanks a bunch I will definitely start using this over Marmoset now. Great work!

chronic

the *.fx file will work with any version of maya that has the hlslShader.mll plugin available - i dont know how far back that goes, maybe maya 8.5 . . .

the main limitations would come from your graphics card, the shader requires a graphics card capable of shader model 3.0 - anything in the past few years should be good, expect for integrated graphics.

Philly13

Tried it out, its great thanks a lot dude Will defo recommend it to friends!

walter

Thanks, very useful !
And it works on my ATI card unlike the CgFX shader...

chronic

UPDATE
11/30/2009

Download: lcNextGenShader_1.2.fx

Added a few things as per requests and my own experimentation

New Features: An experiment in SSS for skin like materials, this could still use some work. A Gloss Map option for modulating the specular shape with a texture - also as a bonus, if you have an environment cube-map it will blur the reflections based on the glossiness.

New Attributes:

sssWeight - the overall intensity of the SSS effect
sssBack - Color of the SSS edge bleed effect
sssRadius - how far across the surface the SSS effect will bleed

useGlossMap - use a gloss map texture yes/no
glossBlurWeight - the overall amount of blurring to the env cube map reflections - 0 turns off the blurring effect
glossBlurMax - the specular glossiness value after which no blurring will happen - usefull for tweaking the blur amount based on your spec glossiness value
glossMap - the gloss map texture (darker values dont work very well here - black turn off specularity)

special thanks to Joel Styles - reading over your hlsl code makes for good learning

bugo

YAY!!! thanks Chronic, I will test out that whenever I have time.

wretchedgoat

I can't seem to get this to work, i get the texture in, it shows up in the preview, but doesn't show up on the mesh, and attaching a normal to it turns the shader black, even with lights linked to it. Do i need to fill all the file slots before i get something to show up? I opened a new scene and can't get it to work even on a sphere. Is there a certain file type? I'm using targas. please help

Ruffio718

Edit: Nevermind fixed the problem!

SUNCHIRP

Nice, thanks for this.

chronic

wretchedgoat - you need to be in Shaded AND Textured mode for the maya viewport even if you are not using any textures, otherwise your model will just show up as green. If you switch to 'High Quality Mode' the shader will also not show up.

No, you dont have to have any of the slots filled in, that is one thing i dont like about most of the realtime shaders out there - with mine, texture slots must be activated. TGA is the format I use.

Other things i can think of: light 1 must be a directional light
your graphics card must be able to run shader model 3
If you still cant get it to work, post a screenshot for me so i can see what you are getting.

Boonta

Such a great shader!! Thanks!

Boonta

hmm this shader seems to have issues displaying TIF's as diffuse and normal maps. At least the ones that zbrush r3 spits out ... or is it a maya thing?? i was getting the same visual error as "wretchedgoat" until i changed my maps from tif to jpg.

chronic

The only formats i have tested are tga and dds - its whatever maya's directx compiler will support, and the documentation is sparse. I'll make a more clear note of it in the first post.

CopperHaze

This shader kicks a whole lot of arse!

rob_beddall

hey,
this shader seems quite cool. I have it working pretty well. ... but i can't get the env maps to work as lighting. I downloaded your .dds file and used that with no other lights and the model just appears black, and with lights it makes no difference to the 3 light set up look.
i'm on maya 2011. Any idea what could be going wrong here?

cheers

chronic

i dont develop this shader anymore, you should check out my latest and greatest creation - lcUberShader.cgfx - http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=70739
That said, i'll take a look and see what could be going wrong as soon as I have some free time.

rob_beddall

hey,

yeah i saw that shader thread a few days ago. It looks awesome. Unfortunately, CGFX shaders with Maya and ATI cards seems to be a bit of a "NO GO". I can't get that CGFX shader to work at all .

bugworld

Thanks for the great shader, it helps me a lot.
If future updates can include reflection cosine power mapping and reflectivity mapping would be great.