The 3ds max Cg Plug-in allows artists to author and visualize content in 3ds max 5 using advanced hardware rendering and the Cg high level language. Accessible from the Viewport Manager located within the 3ds max Material Editor, DirectX users gain a custom, intuitive GUI featuring real-time effects with sliders and other artist-friendly interfaces.

Using 3ds max 5's unique Viewport Manager plug-in pipeline, game developers and 3rd-party developers can extend 3ds max 5's in-viewport graphics to preview their in-game effects live while they build characters and game levels. 

The NVIDIA Cg Compiler (with DirectX 9 support) and the 3ds max Cg Plug-in for 3ds max 5.1 take advantage of this unique capability to allow DirectX 9 Effects Files to be dynamically loaded, viewed, and edited in the 3ds max 5.1 viewport. These effects are loaded and compiled on the fly - so that the art pipeline can be easily updated with the latest in-game shader samples, all viewable directly by the artist during production. 

This plugin for max 5 includes: 

• max 5 plug-in .dlm
• CgFX connection editor
• Example shader files in .fx format with accompanying .dds textures
• Documentation

Requirements: 3ds max 5.1 (with the DirectX 9 update patch), DirectX 9, and Version 1.1 of the Cg Compiler are required for this plug-in.

Note: Discreet has certified NVIDIA driver version 28.84 for use with 3ds max 5.1 and DirectX 8 or older API versions.  Discreet has approved NVIDIA driver version 43.00 for use with 3ds max 5.1 with the DirectX 9 patch. More information is available here.

CgFX Viewer The CgFX Viewer is a standalone shader prototyping tool supporting the .fx format. It allows users to connect, edit, and tweak shaders and render them in DirectX and OpenGL.