You can follow these steps to override a Maya shader in the scene view using a hardware shader, such as a CgFX shader or an HLSL shader. For more information on hardware shaders, see Work with hardware shaders.

Before you begin, you should first select Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager and ensure that the shader plug-in (for example, CgFX or HLSL shader plug-in) is loaded.

1. In the Attribute Editor of the Maya material node, scroll to the Hardware Shading section. Click on the Map button beside the Hardware Shader attribute.
2. Select a hardware shader node (for example, Cgfx Shader) from the Create Render Node window as appropriate.
3. In the hardware shader node Attribute Editor, click the folder icon to the right of the Shader File attribute and navigate to your shader file, for example, your .fx or .cgfx file.
   Note

   The CgFx or HLSL shader plug-in must be loaded when Maya starts. If the Cgfx Shader or Hlsl Shader nodes do not appear in the Create Render Node window, select Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager and enable Auto load for cgfxShader.mll or hlslShader.mll and restart Maya.