XSI vs Irrlicht shaders

Nime · Post by **Nime** » Mon May 01, 2006 11:07 pm

Hi there!

I'm new to Irrlicht but not to 3D graphic and animation (which is my actual job).
I'm very happy about Irrlicht, I just have some doubt left about shaders:

- I use XSI and set up nodes of shader passes (alpha transparency, alpha masking on specular, and such things...).
- Obviously, Irrlicht has its own way to describe shaders.

I can quickly export whatever I want from XSI to Irrlicht using .X format, but what about those shaders? How do you XSI artist bring them to Irrlicht?
See ya!

:>Nime

terefang · Post by **terefang** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:44 pm

i dont know XSI but the term 'shader passes' caused me to respond.

Irrlicht uses "Materials" which may be either:

- a fixed function pipeline (or custom configuration thereof in OpenGL)

- a MaterialRenderer (prescribed shader)

- a custom shader (in either HLSL, DXAsm, GLSL or ARBprogram)

since XSI seams to have its own shader-system, you may want to use
some kind of shader-designer (or plugin) which lets you export to
HLSL/GLSL/Asm.

cheers,

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:49 pm

I think xsi shaders doesn't translate exactly to game shaders...

terefang · Post by **terefang** » Sat May 06, 2006 2:35 pm

yet i think that cgfx or ashli are available as plugins to XSI ...
could be wrong tho.

Nime · Post by **Nime** » Sun May 07, 2006 6:00 pm

Many thanks to everyone!

Acqually XSI has its own "shader editor", let's say, I will look for plug-ins and let you know!

Nime · Post by **Nime** » Sun May 07, 2006 9:29 pm

Ok, maybe I got the point:
When I use the .X exporter, it works alright but XSI registers a warning:

'WARNING : 3000 - Missing OpenGL extension ( ARB_Shadow ) - realtime shadow maps will not be available

I can figure out I'm missing some OpenGL library... is it my graphic card? its drivers? XSI related library? Else?

I searched both softimage website and opengl website, but I still can't figure out what exactly do I need to install.

Any hint? ;*

terefang · Post by **terefang** » Sat May 13, 2006 11:39 am

this probable means that your card does not support that extension,
yet it is not a matter of upgrading a driver but your card.

cheers,

Nime · Post by **Nime** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:57 am

Solution:

- use non-realtime shaders to preview textures in XSI.

- Models and textures are set up and exported.

- Programmers will set up a quick editor to let me set Irrlicht shaders on .X models.

I'll let you know how it goes!