Tutorial and Example Programs

We provide several examples for the use of the MDL SDK API that illustrate -- in a tutorial manner -- the important interfaces and concepts.

See the Getting Started Section for a description of how the example programs can be compiled.

Getting Started with the MDL SDK

• Example for Starting and Shutting Down the MDL SDK API
  Starts and shuts down the MDL SDK API.
• Example for MDL Modules
  Loads an MDL module and inspects its contents.
• Example for Instantiation of MDL Definitions
  Instantiates material and function definitions.
• Example for Function Calls
  Creates a textured material via a series of function calls.
• Example for Compilation of MDL Materials
  Class and instance compilation of material instances.
• Example for Generating Shader Code for an MDL Material
  Generating HLSL, GLSL, or PTX code for a compiled material.
• Example for Execution of Compiled MDL Materials (CPU)
  Executes material sub-expressions of a compiled MDL material for the native (CPU) backend.
• Example for Execution of Compiled MDL Materials (PTX)
  Executes material sub-expressions of a compiled MDL material for the PTX backend with CUDA.
• Example for Execution of Compiled MDL Materials (GLSL)
  Executes material sub-expressions of a compiled MDL material for the GLSL backend with OpenGL.
• Example for Execution of Compiled MDL Materials (GLSL Vulkan)
  Executes material sub-expressions of a compiled MDL material for the GLSL backend with Vulkan.
• Example for Compiled Distribution Functions (PTX)
  Uses compiled material distribution functions in a CUDA based renderer.
• Example for Integrating MDL into a Renderer by Using the Native Backend (CPU)
  CPU based renderer using compiled materials and MDL native backend.
• Example for Compiled Distribution Functions (GLSL)
  Vulkan based renderer using compiled materials and the GLSL backend.
• Example for Texture Filtering with Automatic Derivatives
  Enable automatic derivatives for texture filtering.
• Example for Material Distilling and Baking
  Distilling of compiled materials and baking of material sub-expressions.
• Example for Material Distilling and Baking for Unity
  Distilling of compiled materials and baking of material sub-expressions for Unity
• Example for Using Distilled Materials in OpenGL
  Mapping distilled materials to a GLSL shader.
• Example for custom Distiller plugin
  Custom Distiller target implementation
• Example for Traversing Compiled Materials
  Traversing compiled MDL materials and reconstructing compilable MDL code.
• Example for building of new MDL Modules
  Builds a new MDL module.
• Example for the Discovery of MDL Modules
  Discovers MDL modules in the specified search paths and lists them.
• Example Implementation of an MDL Browser
  Example for a material selection dialogue.
• Example for Integrating the MDL Encapsulated Format
  Export and load materials or functions using the MDL encapsulated format.
• Example for a Microsoft DXR-based MDL-enabled Path Tracer
  Rendering glTF scenes using MDL materials.
• Example for Inlining MDL Code into Shaders (OptiX 7)
  Optimize evaluation of materials.
• Example for converting from X-Rite AxF to MDL material formats
  Converts a AxF file to MDL.

Index of Topics Explained in the Example Programs