https://www.posetteforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=2006&p=29600#p29600
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Visitor
Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 12:20 AM


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I don't know about good Windows text editors.  Have not needed any for years.  In unix, I use JOE VI and PICO.  JOE for its WordStar command key very similar to those you may have used with Borland C and C++ IDE.  VI is an old stand by that since long before Windows and is still impoving.

What renderman calls a shader is a small program written in the Renderman shader language.  That is why you have the "aqsl" the shader compiler for Aqsis.  For the skin the plastic shader was used.  This may have been a bad choice by Poser, or it may be the best shader that Poser could count on being available on all Renderman implementation.

The Shader langage does appear to have been derived from C.  Between the Aqsis and Pixie, Aqsis has the points for better standatd Renderman shaders since it has the actual shaders distributed by Pixar.  However, Pixie has some shaders that are not included with Aqsis, like the glass shader.  That is not problem though.

You can easily copy the shaders from one over to the other.  But they won't work; until you compile them for that particular renderer.  They are written in the same language, in the SL files, but they compile to the local renderer's own internal shader machine code.  For Aqsis, the compiled shaders are stored in SLX files and it looks like assembler code for Intel processors for the MASM assemplers.  For Pixie that are stored in SDR files and look like a cross between FORTH and IBM BAL assembler code.