Appendix C. The CgFX File Format
What Is CgFX?
CgFX is a powerful and versatile shader specification and interchange format. As a file format, it is identical to Microsoft’s .fx Effect format for DirectX 9. However, the CgFX runtime, like Cg, supports OpenGL as well as DirectX 8 and DirectX 9. For artists and developers of real-time graphics, this format provides several key benefits:
Cross-API, cross-platform compatibility and portability.
Encapsulation of multiple techniques, enabling fallbacks for level-of-detail, functionality, or performance.
Support for Cg, assembly language, and fixed-function shaders.
Editable parameters and GUI descriptions embedded in the file.
Multipass shaders.
Render state and texture state specification.
In practical terms, ...
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