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1520 Chapter 16: Material Editor, Materials, and Maps
menta l r ay S ha der s
In mental ray, a shader is a function that calculates
light e ffects. T here can be shaders for lights,
cameras (lens shaders), materials, shadows, and
so on.
Note: In 3D modeling, the more common use
of “shader” is an algorithm that specifies how
asurfacerespondstolight. (Theshadersfor
standard 3ds Max fa ll into this category.) With the
mental ray renderer, “shader” has a more general
sense of
any
algorithm used in rendering.
The
mental ray renderer (page 3–77)
can render
most types of 3ds Max materials and m aps. See
3ds Max Materials in mental ray Renderings (page
3–82)
. In addition, if you have enabled mental
ray extensions (see
mental ray Preferences (page
3–867)
), you can apply a variet y of shaders to
materials. Materials designed for use with the
mental ray renderer have specific components
to which y ou can assign a shader. And for
standard 3ds Max material types, the
mental ray
Connection rollout (page 2–1305)
lets you add
mental ray shading.
Wa rn in g : Whenyouusethescanlinerenderer,mental
ray shaders typically appear as black or white sur faces,
or they are ignored entirely.
You assign a mental ray shader the same way you
do a map. In the
Material/Map Browser (page
2–1256)
, menta l ray shaders appear with a yellow
icon, instead of the green icon used for maps.
mentalraymapsinthebrowserslistareshownwithyellow
icons.
TheshaderslistedintheBrowserdependonwhich
type of shader component you have chosen in the
Material Editor. For example, w hen you assign
aSurfaceshader,theBrowserlistsavarietyof
shaders and standard 3ds Max maps. But when
you assign a more special-purpose Contour
shader, the Browser lists only those shaders that
generate contour lines.
Note: Other kinds of special-purpose shaders
include shaders for cameras and lights. Buttons to
assign camera shaders are found on the Render
Scene dialog’s
Camera Effects rollout (page
3–100)
, and the buttons to assign light shaders are
on a light object’s
mental ray Light Shader rollout
(page 2–1189)
(which appears only on the Modify
panel, not the Create panel).
TheshaderslistedintheBrowsercomefrom
several libraries that are prov ided with 3ds Max.
Shaders created specifically for 3ds Max are
described in this
User Reference
. Shaders provided
with the mental images or lume shader libraries
have their own online documentation. The
following topics link to the descriptions of specific
shaders: