HLSL (High Level Shading Language) shader nodes allow you to create and configure native HLSL hardware shaders in Maya. HLSL is the native shading language of Direct X, and as such, is the preferred shading language for many Direct X based target applications, including games on the XBOX family of consoles. Unlike previous HLSL support in Maya, the HLSL shader provides native Direct X compilation rendering.
For information on how to create an HLSL shader, see Create an HLSL shader.
dx11Shader.mll is the preferred plug-in for creating Direct X shaders. Therefore, the HLSL plug-in is no longer provided with the standard Maya install.
For backwards compatibility, you can download the hlslShader.mll from the Autodesk Maya Bonus Tools package (select Help > Maya Resources and Tools > Download Bonus Tools from the Maya menu) or the hlslShader plug-in example from the Developer Kit available on the Autodesk Developer Network).
This functionality requires the February 2007 version of Direct X.
To convert an older .fx file to the new .cgfx format, there are conversion utilities available from NVIDIA. Extensive documentation on Cg and CgFX is also available. See www.developer.nvidia.com.
HLSL shaders are currently only supported in the default Maya scene view. There is currently no support for the high quality renderer or external renderers.
You cannot use HLSL shaders that contain certain effects in Maya:
The HLSL plug-in currently does not support shaders which deform the geometry. These effects will be visible, but artifacts may exist when compositing the DX and GL scene elements together.
On the Linux platform, the Maya hardware workspace does not support the GLSL or Cg shading languages on remote display or any indirect rendering device.