Yes I would like to know as well, anybody know?

As far as I know Microsoft has permanently removed syntax highlighting in HLSL. If I remember it was removed starting either August or October 2006 SDK. However NVIDIA FX composer has a much better development environment for developing and debugging shaders

This is a little bit annoying, but you can define your own keywords in Usertype.dat.

Quote:

Original post by Asesh As far as I know Microsoft has permanently removed syntax highlighting in HLSL. If I remember it was removed starting either August or October 2006 SDK.

Why would they do such a thing?

Ask them :P

Here's how you can get syntax highlighting to work with any hlsl file extension that you use (.hlsl, .fx, .fxh, etc). Don't blame me if you screw up your registry!

Custom Syntax Highlighting

Here is what I did for Visual Studio 2005 (Professional Edition):

1. Open up the registry editor and go to the following location - HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Languages\File Extensions
2. Copy the default value from the .cpp key.
3. Create a new key under the File Extensions with the name of .fx
4. Paste the value you just copied into the default value.
5. Restart Visual Studio and your shaders should now have syntax highlighting.
6. repeat steps 2-6 for the .fxh extension.

For Visual C++ Express Edition, follow the same steps. In step 2 use the following location:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VCExpress\8.0\Languages\File Extensions


The method is based on this webpage, with minor changes:

http://community.livejournal.com/heos/3643.html

Hmmm that sounds to me like you are just duplicated the syntax highlighting for c++ and using it with any hlsl. And if that is the case there is an easier way to do it -

In visual studio 2005
- go to Tools -> Options
- choose Text Editor -> File Extensions
- you can then identify any unknown file extensions that you are using (eg. .fx or .hlsl) and pick which syntax highlighting system you want them to use.

At the moment my .fx ones are mimicking the c++ syntax highlighting, which isn't perfect, but its something at least. If anyone does figure out the proper hlsl highlighting please let us know :)

Cheers.

Quote:

Original post by GambitSnax Hmmm that sounds to me like you are just duplicated the syntax highlighting for c++ and using it with any hlsl. And if that is the case there is an easier way to do it - In visual studio 2005 - go to Tools -> Options - choose Text Editor -> File Extensions - you can then identify any unknown file extensions that you are using (eg. .fx or .hlsl) and pick which syntax highlighting system you want them to use. At the moment my .fx ones are mimicking the c++ syntax highlighting, which isn't perfect, but its something at least. If anyone does figure out the proper hlsl highlighting please let us know :) Cheers.

You have to download the CG Toolkit from the nVidia site.
Then in the folder \NVIDIA Corporation\Cg\msdev_syntax_highlighting\ its gonna be a file called usertype.dat then you will have to do this..

1. Copy the usertype.dat file to \Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE
2. Open up the registry editor and go to the following location - HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Languages\File Extensions
3. Copy the default value from the .cpp key.
4. Create a new key under the File Extensions with the name of .cg
5. Paste the value you just copied into the default value.
6. Restart Visual Studio and your shaders should now have syntax highlighting.

and it will be all set.