How to use the DirectX Extensions for Alias Maya

Once you have the DirectX Extensions for Alias Maya installed, here is how to use them.

1. Create a polygon cube:
   Create Menu -> Polygon Primitives -> Cube
2. Assign the DirectX material to the Cube:
   Right Click on the Cube
   Materials -> Assign New Material -> Direct XShader
3. Open a DirectX Viewer window so you can see how the cube will look in DirectX:
   DirectX Menu -> Viewers... -> Floating
4. Bring up the attributes of the Direct XShader material:
   Right Click on the Cube
   Materials -> Materials Attributes...
5. In the Attribute Editor, associate a .fx file with the Cube:
   Attribute Editor -> DirectXShader1 -> Direct3D -> Select and Customize FX-File
6. Use the wood.fx shader that comes with Nvidia's SDK. I found the .fx files that ship with the Microsoft DirectX 9.0 SDK did not work:
   FX Editor -> Open -> C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\SDK 9.0\MEDIA\Hlsl\wood.fx
7. Close the FX Editor:
   FX Editor -> Close
8. Export .x file:
   DirectX Menu -> Export All -> Desktop -> File name: junk.x -> Save
9. Accept default settings for ExportOptions dialog:
   ExportOptions -> OK
10. Load junk.x file with DirectX MeshView to verify results:
    Start -> Run... -> "C:\Program Files\Microsoft DirectX 9.0 SDK (April 2005)\Utilities\Bin\x86\MView.exe" "C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Desktop\junk.x"

For more information on the Microsoft Maya Plug-in, see:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/directx9_c_dec_2004/directx/directxsdk/Tools/Content/MayaFXExporter.asp