MDL Handbook webpage
NVIDIA Material Definition Language
Awhile in the making, Andy Kopra, Jan Jordan, et al. have written a handbook for the Material Definition Language.
For those of you not familiar with MDL, you can find the main page describing it here.
Any software, such as mental ray 3.13 and Iray will be able to exchange materials using MDL and render identically. Software integrating mental ray, Iray, or MDL itself will also be able to use and render these materials, Allegorithmic is a noted partner.
Take a look at the MDL Handbook page for more information on using, creating, and integrating MDL.
You can now find the presentation online here: MDL Presentation
Posted on March 23, 2015, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
elemental ray 
Awesome! I’ve been reading through it and so far it’s well organized and written. Very clear and easy to digest. The guys did great work with this!
Is this relevant at this point for a future maya user? Will these be available in mental ray for maya?
MDL is important in NVIDIA’s overall rendering strategy and future. It ties together multiple solutions and begins to present a unified workflow for anyone using a product with MDL. It’s also GPU friendly–something that OSL and MetaSL are/were not. I can’t say what will happen in an unreleased Maya but you can guess it’s important to simplifying workflow using mental ray and Iray together.
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