Technique
Often, shaders have more than one mode; for
example, they may have modes to support two different video card
models. You can adjust the technique in the Attribute
Editor.
Shader parameters and shader mesh data
There are two types of extra attributes on CgFX,
HLSL, or ASHLI materials.
- Varying
parameters allow you to select the per-vertex mesh data used by your
shader. This includes selecting the UV sets, color sets, tangents
and normals your shader will use. By right-clicking on the fields,
you can select the data to pass to the shader.
- Uniform
parameters are shader specific and dynamically created in Maya. Many
of these properties are maps (file textures), lighting and surface characteristics.
In order to use the shader mesh data properly,
you must know which of the arrays the shader is expecting what data
in.
NoteAs of Maya 2009, the ASHLI plug-in is now
available as part of the Maya Bonus Tools. Bonus Tools is a free
collection of useful Maya scripts and plug-ins that are available
from the Autodesk Web site (
www.autodesk.com/maya-bonustools).