The Stingray physically based shader (PBS) respects the laws of physics and energy conservation. It allows you to balance diffusion/reflection and microsurface detail/reflectivity through the use of roughness, normal, and metallic maps.
To create a shader graph with a Stingray physically based shader:
- Apply a DirectX Shader material to an object .
- On the DirectX Shader rollout, choose Stingray from the drop-down list.
- Also on the DirectX Shader rollout, click Open ShaderFX.
The Stingray shader uses the same graphic editor as ShaderFX networks.
By default, the ShaderFX editor opens a standard, preset Stingray network. The Stingray output node is the Standard Base node at the right.
- Edit the shader network as you would edit a regular ShaderFX network.
The first time you click a node in the Stingray network, 3ds Max warns you that you are editing a preset, and asks whether you want to change the preset itself, or to create a new and different Stingray shader.
This message appears whenever you try to change the graph of any preset, whether it be a custom preset, or the default one provided with 3ds Max.
Note: Although you can create your Stingray PBS shader network via the ShaderFX editor similarly to how you can create your ShaderFX shader network, you cannot save a .sfx file from the former and use it in the latter or vice versa. Although the ShaderFX editor interfaces are similar, the set of available nodes is different and therefore not interchangeable.