RSL Function Nodes

RenderMan for Maya has always offered support for using the RenderMan Shading Language, to a certain degree. Hand-written, compiled shaders can be imported as a RenderMan Shader node in Maya. Users can also take advantage of RSLFunctionNodes.

RSLFunctionNodes appear to the enduser as plugin Maya nodes that can be "wired" into standard Maya shading networks for use with RfM. They are radically simpler to create than a standard Maya plugin node because RfM handles all the details associated with registering and populating Maya nodes with attributes. RSLFunctionNodes are described in a manner patterned after Slim Templates. There is an association between each RSLFunctIonNode type and RenderMan Shading Language (RSL) functions. End-users can trivially extend the collection of RSLFunctionNodes and even override those provided by Pixar.