User’s Guide FX Composer 2.5 April 2008 DU-02761-001_v01 Table of Contents Quick Tutorial ....................................................................................................1 Overview ......................................................................................................................... 1 The NVIDIA Software Improvement Program...................................................................... 1 Creating an Effect............................................................................................................. 1 Importing Geometry ......................................................................................................... 4 Applying Materials to Geometry ......................................................................................... 5 Modifying Material Parameters........................................................................................... 6 Assigning Textures ........................................................................................................... 7 Binding a Light to a Material.............................................................................................. 8 Shader Library.................................................................................................................. 8 Editing Shaders ................................................................................................................ 9 Overview ..........................................................................................................11 What Is FX Composer 2.5? .............................................................................................. 11 Complete Feature List ........................................................................................................... 11 mental mill Artist Edition....................................................................................................... 12 The Basics ........................................................................................................15 Layout........................................................................................................................... 15 Start Page...................................................................................................................... 16 Authoring Shaders.......................................................................................................... 17 Shader Library Panel....................................................................................................... 17 Shader Library Preferences ................................................................................................... 17 Properties Panel ............................................................................................................. 18 Code Editor.................................................................................................................... 20 Snippets for Common Text Blocks......................................................................................... 21 Code Editor Settings .............................................................................................................. 23 mental mill Artist Edition ................................................................................................. 23 Material Panel ................................................................................................................ 23 Texture Viewer............................................................................................................... 28 Choosing Your Rendering API .......................................................................................... 30 DU-002761-001_v01 ii April 2008 The Render Panel.............................................................................................31 The Render Panel........................................................................................................... 31 Toolbar .................................................................................................................................. 31 Manipulating the Camera...................................................................................................... 32 Applying Materials................................................................................................................. 32 Viewports .............................................................................................................................. 33 Scene Options........................................................................................................................ 33 Tips for Working with Complex Scenes ................................................................................. 33 Animation ...................................................................................................................... 34 Analyzing Shader Performance........................................................................35 The ShaderPerf Panel ..................................................................................................... 35 ShaderPerf Panel Interface.................................................................................................... 37 Task List........................................................................................................................ 39 Particle Systems ..............................................................................................40 Introduction to Particle Systems ...................................................................................... 40 Creating a Particle System............................................................................................... 40 Particle System Parameters ............................................................................................. 41 Respawn Parameters............................................................................................................. 41 Other Parameters.................................................................................................................. 41 Visual Styles and Models .................................................................................42 What are Visual Styles and Models? ................................................................................. 42 The Model Panel............................................................................................................. 42 Loading a New Visual Model ................................................................................................. 43 Working with Styles............................................................................................................... 43 Instantiating a Visual Model.................................................................................................. 44 Working with Shaders .....................................................................................45 Creating a COLLADA FX Common Profile........................................................................... 45 Creating Various Types of Shaders................................................................................... 47 Creating a COLLADA FX Cg Effect .......................................................................................... 47 COLLADA FX Cg Shader Authoring Tutorial ........................................................................... 48 Creating a Full‐Scene COLLADA FX Effect.............................................................................. 51 COLLADA FX Authoring.......................................................................................................... 57 CgFX and .fx Authoring .......................................................................................................... 64 Vertex Stream Remapper ...................................................................................................... 64 DU-002761-001_v01 iii April 2008 Converting CgFX Effects to COLLADA FX Effect ..................................................................... 67 Editing COLLADA FX Cg Shaders ............................................................................................ 68 Converting HLSL FX to CgFX................................................................................................... 68 Choosing Your Rendering API .............................................. 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Working with Projects .....................................................................................71 Project Structure ............................................................................................................ 71 Project Explorer.............................................................................................................. 71 Documents and Assets .......................................................................................................... 72 Active Documents.................................................................................................................. 72 Physical Documents............................................................................................................... 72 Virtual Documents................................................................................................................. 72 COLLADA Documents...................................................................................................... 73 Sample