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1710 Chapter 16: Material Editor, Materials, and Maps
menta l r ay S ha der s
In mental ra y, a shader is a function that calculates
light effects. There can be shaders for lights,
cameras (lens shaders), materials, shadows, and
so on.
Note: In 3D modeling, t he more common usage
of “shader” signifies an algorithm that specifies
howasurfacerespondstolight.(Theshadersfor
standard 3ds Max fall 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 3–78) can render
most types of 3ds Max materials and maps. See
3dsMaxMaterialsinmentalrayRenderings(page
3–83). In addition, if you have enabled mental
ray extensions (see mental ray Preferences (page
3–837)), you can apply a variety of shaders to
materials. Materials designed for use with the
mental ray renderer have specific components to
which you can assign a shader. And for standard
3ds Max material t ypes, the mental ray Connection
rollout (page 2–1461) lets yo u add mental ray
shading.
Wa rning: Whenyouusethescanlinerenderer,mental
ray shaders typically appear as black or white surfaces,
or they are ignored entirely.
You assign a mental ray shader the same way you
do a map. In the Material/Map Browser (page
2–1412), mental ray shaders appear with a yellow
icon, instead of the green icon used for maps.
mental ray maps in the browser’s list are shown with yellow
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 l ists only those shaders that
generate contour lines.
Note: Other kinds of special-pur p ose shaders
include shaders for cameras and lig hts. Buttons to
assign camera shaders are found on the Render
Scene dialog’s Camera Effects rollout (page 3–101),
and the buttons to assign light shaders are on a
light object’s mental ray Light Shader rollout (page
2–1345) (which appears only on the Modify panel,
not the Create panel).
TheshaderslistedintheBrowsercomefrom
several libraries that are provided w ith 3ds Max.
Shaders created specifically for 3ds Max are
describedinthisdocument. Shadersprovided
with the mental images or lume shader libraries
have their own online documentation. The
following topics link to the descriptions of specific
shaders: