Supported HLSL Shader Semantics

Render Semantics

The following are supported render semantics:

• DIFFUSEMAP
• OPACITYMAP
• SPECULARMAP
• BUMPMAP or NORMALMAP
• LIGHTMAP
• DISPLACEMENTMAP
• REFLECTIONMAP

Basic Transformations

The following are supported basic transformations (I = Inverse and T = Transpose)

• WORLD
• WORLDI
• WORLDIT
• VIEW
• VIEWI
• VIEWIT
• PROJECTION
• PROJECTIONI
• PROJECTIONIT
• WORLDVIEW
• WORLDVIEWI
• WORLDVIEWIT
• WORLDVIEWPROJ
• WORLDVIEWPROJI
• WORLDVIEWPROJIT
• WORLDT
• VIEWT
• PROJECTIONT
• VIEWPORT

Geometry Semantics

The following are supported geometry based semantics:

• WORLD_CAMERA_POSITION or WORLDCAMERAPOSITION
• LOCAL_BBOX_MIN or LOCALBBOXMIN
• LOCAL_BBOX_MAX or LOCALBBOXMAX
• LOCAL_BBOX_SIZE or LOCALBBOXSIZE
• RECIP_LOCAL_BBOX_SIZE or RECIPLOCALBBOXSIZE

Lighting Semantics

The following lighting based semantics are used to populate the light drop downs with the correct style of light.

• POSITION
• DIRECTION
• LIGHTCOLOR
• LIGHTHOTSPOT <float value>
• LIGHTFALLOFF <float value>
• LIGHTATTENUATION <vector4> - X = near attenuation start, Y = near attenuation stop, Z = far attenuation start, A = far attenuation end

The following is an example of using lighting based semantics

// light direction (view space)
float3 lightDir : Direction <  
  string UIName = "Light Direction";
  string Object = "TargetLight";
  int RefID = 0;
> = {-0.577, -0.577, 0.577};
 
//diffuse setting controlled by the light if available
float4 k_d : LightColor <
  string UIName = "Diffuse";
  int LightRef = 0;
> = float4( 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f );    

Mapping Channel Semantics

3ds Max has the concept of mapping channels. The TEXCOORD semantic allows the developer to define which channel is provided on which texture coordinate input for the vertex shader.

The following is an example of its usage

int texcoord0 : TEXCOORD
<
  int Texcoord = 0;
  int MapChannel = 0;
> = 0;

This will provide mapping channel 0 (the vertex color channel) to texcoord0. Currently the actual value of the parameter, in this case texcoord0, is ignored, and the parser only reads the annotation.

Miscellaneous Semantics

The following are non-categorized semantics:

• BKRGCOLOR – The current background color of the max viewport
• TIME – The current time in the animation sequence.
• BITMAPOVERRIDE (deprecated) – Defines the bitmap used for the bitmap render option of the DirectX 9 Shader (deprecated)
• COLOROVERRIDE (deprecated) – Defines the shaded render color of the DirectX 9 Shader