NVIDIA MDL SDK
The NVIDIA Material Definition Language (MDL) SDK is a set of tools to enable quick integration of physically-based materials into rendering applications. It contains comprehensive C++ and Python APIs that allow applications to load MDL modules, analyze, and understand the structure of a material so it can build a UI for material editing and render the results. NVIDIA will soon open source the MDL Distiller, a fully automated companion solution to the MDL SDK that enables best-in-class implementations of MDL support for all kinds of renderers.
Key Benefits of MDL
Realistic Rendering and Materials Simulation
MDL is a flexible language that can be used to define complex, physically accurate materials that other renderers can’t by reducing material complexity to boost performance.
Renderer Algorithm Independence
Unlock material representations that are supported across rendering algorithms, from basic OpenGL rasterizers to advanced light transport simulations.
Ease of Integration
New open source GLSL backend technologies provide MDL support to renderer developers building on OpenGL or Vulkan, closing the gap to established graphics API standards. With the MDL Distiller and GLSL backend, we will see many more developers leveraging the power of MDL.
MDL Partners
MDL can be used to define materials compatible with NVIDIA’s Iray. Chaos Group Vray, Adobe Dimension, and ESI IC.IDO use the MDL SDK to add MDL support to their applications
