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).