About hardware shaders

Maya includes plug-ins that you can use to create hardware shaders.

• cgfxShader.mll
• glslShader.mll

To see hardware shaders, you must have a supported video card. Check the Autodesk website (www.autodesk.com/hardware) for the most accurate information about qualified hardware. As well, your scene view must be in hardware textured mode. Only a hardware renderer can render these hardware shaders.

To create and render GLSL shaders, you must run Maya in OpenGL core profile mode in Viewport 2.0. Select Windows > Settings/Preferences > Preferences to open the Preferences window, and from the Display category, select OpenGL Core Profile as your Rendering engine.

The CgFx and GLSL shader plug-ins must be loaded in order for you to create your hardware shaders. If the Cgfx Shader and/or GLSL Shader nodes do not appear in the Create Render Node window, select Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager and enable Auto load for the cgfxShader.mll and glslShader.mll shader plug-ins respectively.

Related topics

• CgFX shader
• Create a CgFX shader
• Writing a CgFX shader
• Limitations of CgFX shaders
• Orientation of the texture co-ordinate system for CgFX shaders
• Troubleshoot working with CgFX shaders
• HLSL shader
• Create an HLSL shader
• GLSL shader
• To create and visualize a GLSL shader
• Write a custom GLSL shader