CgFX shaders

The compiled CgFX plug-in in Maya lets you create hardware shaders.Previously, you may have downloaded the Cg / CgFx libraries from nVidia^®. For more information, see About hardware shaders.

NoteThis plugin uses Cg 1.4. The cg compiler (cgc) and all dlls are included in the bin directory of Maya.

Older effects support a different syntax .fx (MS) files than the current ones: .cgfx. Because Cg is a superset of HLSL, CgFX 1.4 exposes all the capabilities of Cg (Interfaces and unsized arrays). Therefore, CgFX 1.4 has a new format called .cgfx that allows developers to program in the Cg language.

If you've installed an older version of CgFX, you must uninstall it or disable the environment variables that are set with the install.

Basic workflow

The following steps outline the basic workflow to use the CgFX plug-in.

Load the cgfxShader.mll from the Plug-in Manager.
In Hypershade, create an CgFX Shader material.
In the scene view, assign the CgFX material to an object.
In the Attribute Editor, connect a .cgfx file to the CgFX Shader material.
Adjust attributes, if necessary.
In the scene view, turn on Hardware Texturing.

To create and work with a CgFX shader, see Work with CgFX shaders.

CgFX limitations and other notes

Important information about the CG language including the limitations of the CgFX plugin are available on the nVidia website (www.developer.nvidia.com), especially www.developer.nvidia.com/object/cg_toolkit.html.

NoteYou must use an nVidia graphics card if your CgFX shader utilizes nVidia specific profiles. Otherwise, you will not be able to preview these shaders in the scene view.