ShaderFX is a real-time shader editor that allows you to easily create advanced viewport shaders by connecting different shading nodes. As you create your shader network, you can visualize the resulting materials interactively in viewports.
With this feature, artists and programmers can design shaders that match those of their game engine. Using your game assets and textures inside 3ds Max viewports is now made easier.
To get started, see Create a ShaderFX Shader.
For Autodesk 3ds Max 2016, enhancements to the ShaderFX real-time visual shader editor offer expanded shading options and better shader interoperability between 3ds Max, Maya, and Maya LT. With new node patterns—wavelines, voronoi, simplex noise, and brick—as well as a new bump utility node and a searchable node browser, game artists and programmers can create and exchange advanced shaders more easily.
FBX has been updated to improve sharing ShaderFX textures between these products.
Stingray Shaders
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.
Stingray shaders use the same editor as ShaderFX shaders, but they employ a different set of nodes and have some differences in workflow.