Is there a program that lets me view .fx files other than rendermonkey or FX Composer?

Is there a program that lets me view .fx files other than rendermonkey or FX Composer?

• DineshNS

  New Blade3D also have support for FX and error checking in FX files (you can edit FX and see errors). Blade3D is in beta1 and it will be commercial product.
  
  

• harvard_isaac

  I will keep this in mind when writing them in the future, thanks
  

• suneelkumar

  The DirectX viewer seems to have a lot of issues rendering effects that are output by RenderMonkey, etc. I've had an idea in my head for while to create a FX viewer in XNA, since then you could be 100% sure that your effect is XNA compatible. Anyway I have started working on this and hopefully will have something at least somewhat useful in the near future.
  
  

• yonderstar

  You could also use C# Epress IDE to write your shaders, and guess what, if you include the file in the content folder of your XNA project, the content processor will tell of any errors in the shader file's source code at compilation time.

  Ok, no syntax highlighting or autocompletion, at least in the express edition, but you avoid the use of the NotePad, though.

  
  
  

• JackStri

  Well I don't know of any better tools for authoring FX files than RenderMonkey and FX Composer, but if you have authored your FX files in Notepad and simply want to view them, and if you have installed the DirectX SDK already, you can use the DirectX Viewer:

  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219745.aspx

  If you have not already installed the SDK, it's even larger than RenderMonkey and FX Composer, and it does not appear that the DirectX Viewer is available as a separate download. If you cannot reliably download files from the Internet, I recommend that you contact your ISP to get that resolved.

  
  

• Mikey Stevey

  The problem with .fx files that makes it difficult for 'viewer' programs is that they don't supply all the context that is needed to 'view' them. Fx files are a step beyond just using shaders because they add the ability to describe render state and multiple passes but there is still no commonly used standard for identifying parameters or other context (such as whether an .fx file is intended to be used on a 3D object in the scene or as a full screen quad to do some post process pass).
  
  XNA, like DirectX, does not force any standard on how parameters are used/identified. There have been attempts at standards from Microsoft. The DirectX Semantics and Annotations Standard (SAS) has two, widely differing, versions 0.8 and 1.0. The current release of FxComposer supports SAS 0.8 (and others) but the DirectX viewer in current DirectX SDKs uses SAS 1.0. I think part of the reason these standards have not been so successful is because of the complexity needed to encompass all possible usages and hence the complexity in implementing them into a rendering framework.
  
  A viewer either needs to pick one standard (like the DirectX viewer) or try to handle all of the various standards out there.
  
  Perhaps someone will come up with a framework/component for handling .fx file parameters that will be commonly used amongst XNA developers. This might be based on one of the mentioned standards. Then we would be in a good position to provide viewers and creation tools.
  
  Cheers,
  Leaf.
  
  
  
• Is there a program that lets me view .fx files other than rendermonkey or FX Composer?