A good Cg IDE?
Author
Hi everyone,
I'm using a third-party platform-independent graphics engine which uses shaders written in Cg. However I can't seem to find a decent Cg IDE. All I want is syntax highlighting and shader preview. And a debugger would be nice too. Any suggestions?
FxComposer by NVidia is the best (it uses fx files, but they are pretty much the same as cg if you an OpenGL user). ATI did also a tool called RenderMonkey, but I never liked that, way to complicated. It also looks like ATI is no longer supporting RenderMonkey, last update was in 2004.
If you just want syntax highlighting support, just use a simple editor or Visual Studio, which do support syntax highlighting for hlsl either by default or if you install an addin or syntax highlighting file.
If you just want syntax highlighting support, just use a simple editor or Visual Studio, which do support syntax highlighting for hlsl either by default or if you install an addin or syntax highlighting file.
Author
Thanks for the reply, I did a lot of "googling" before I posted, I found the FX Composer, checked out the FAQ, and found:
So in what sense are FX files the same as Cg? Because the shaders written in Cg are post-processed by a tool from the engine, which means only Cg shaders will do the job.
BTW the engine is Wild Magic 3.5
Quote:Does FX Composer work with Cg or GLSL?
We are always evaluating opportunites to provide powerful tools for developers, but have no plans to add support for other languages to FX Composer. FX Composer was built to support the large number of developers using HLSL in their applications.
So in what sense are FX files the same as Cg? Because the shaders written in Cg are post-processed by a tool from the engine, which means only Cg shaders will do the job.
BTW the engine is Wild Magic 3.5
HLSL is very similar to Cg (pretty much identical really), and I think the FX format is also very similar to the Cg effect file format. So you could develop shaders in FX Composer and when they're done get them running in the engine with a few minor changes (or maybe none at all).
Author
I see, thanks. I can't get cgc.exe to compile anything (even the examples)...
Anyway, I have one more question: If FX Composer is the best IDE for shader development then how come it doesn't have a debugger? Or am I missing something?
Anyway, I have one more question: If FX Composer is the best IDE for shader development then how come it doesn't have a debugger? Or am I missing something?
AFAIK, some slide I had lying around mentioned FXComposer 2.0 supporting GLSL, Cg and Collada 1.4. possibly some SIGGRAPH 2005 slide.
nVidia's Cg Toolkit comes with syntax highligthing for visual studio :-) which is nice... for an different IDE, you have the choice of RenderMonkey or FXComposer, both are pretty straight forward to use, but as Cg is the brainchild of nVidia it's probrably a good idea to go with the nVidia FX Composer over the ATI RenderMonkey.
Code::Blocks has a 'nvidia cg' profile for handling syntax highlighting on your cg files. You can write them side by side in C::B with your app.
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