CgFX Article

[alexsok]

Not sure if this one has been posted around here by now (you can never know on this board , but what the heck:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/cgfx.html

Worth a glint guys.

 

[991060]

will there be any HLSL plug-in in the future?

 

[bloodbob]

It supports HSLS I believe that the CGFX only supports DX8 <-- ignore this

Now you would think with simple bump mapping there wouldn't be much difference between DX8 and DX9 code ( thats my thinking ) but if you go to this page
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/cgfx_4.html
you will see there is a VAST difference between the images when it is render via CG to A direct X 8 target ( dunno which set of pixel shaders ) and a DX9 HLSL render.

Now on the next page
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/cgfx_5.html
You see the true nvidia DX8 / DX9 preformance now without having 3dmax whatever version with all the updates I can only guess the difference between the CG is simple the render targets using this quote

A DirectX 9 analog of the previous shader.

I believe my assumption is valid. DX9 14/35 vs DX8 102/112 . I guess the question is how well would ATI hardware handle the same generated code?

 

[KimB]

It supports HSLS I believe that the CGFX only supports DX8

nVidia's CgFX plugin supports DX9 shader targets. Apparently, the plugin is designed so that it will even attempt to run shaders on 1st-gen GPU's (NV1x, R1xx), using a variety of specific fallback techniques.

Anyway, here's the nVidia website, complete with documentation:
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/IO_3dsmaxCgFXPlugin.html

It appears to also work in OpenGL, but it looks like it's more of a hassle to use.

And where do you get the info that HLSL is supported in 3ds max?

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/cgfx_4.html
you will see there is a VAST difference between the images when it is render via CG to A direct X 8 target ( dunno which set of pixel shaders ) and a DX9 HLSL render.

Um, those were both Cg. The first DX8, the second DX9.

Update:
According to nVidia's press release, the .fx files are fully-compatible with HLSL.

 

[bloodbob]

LOL yeah I didn't go back and delete that line yeah in the later examples its using CGFX with DX9 just the first dx8 vs dx9 they didn't use cg on dx9 for reason and I hadn't gone through the hole doc yet.

okay well accoriding to that article they say the first one use assembler which I assumed must have been CGFX complier if not what is this mysterous assembler??

 

[AndrewM]

okay well accoriding to that article they say the first one use assembler which I assumed must have been CGFX complier if not what is this mysterous assembler??

You can use Dx8/Dx9/OpenGL asm shader languages, if you prefer it (over HLSL/Cg).

CgFX is basically an implementation of D3D's Effects files - as Cg is an implementation of D3D's HLSL.

I'm glad they weren't negative about CgFX in the article, because it's a great tool. It just needs some more attention from nvidia. If they released the source code to it, it would make me much happier, as it has quite a few bugs, and they are being very silent about it.