Hi there,

Realism, easy to control, fast. These are the things you would typically expect from shaders (not necessarily in that order 🙂 ). So here are some of them:

ALSHADERS: Anders Langlands’s shader pack.
Great Shaders, procedural textures, utility nodes and it is FREE. Amazing.

Especially good for coated materials and metals.
I’d like to emphasize one feature: Light Group support!

http://www.anderslanglands.com/

How to install:

• Download, Extract it to a folder, rename it (optional)
• You need to create three Environment Variables (System variable):ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH variable to include {ALSHADERS_INSTALL}/bin
  MTOA_TEMPLATES_PATH variable to include {ALSHADERS_INSTALL}/ae
  MAYA_CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_PATH variable to include {ALSHADERS_INSTALL}/aexml

In my case the first variable is:
Variable name: ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH
Variable Value: D:\Shaders\alShaders\bin
the second is:
Variable name: MTOA_TEMPLATES_PATH
Variable Value: D:\Shaders\alShaders\ae
the third is:
Variable name: MAYA_CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_PATH
Variable Value: D:\Shaders\alShaders\aexml

• Start Maya

The second is a really specific shader, and it is great.

 JF Nested Dielectric. Jonah Friedman’s shader. Also free. And it tackles the most tedious scenario easily.

For example: Ice in a beverage in a glass or water drops on a glass or a liquid simulation in a glass.

How to Install:

• Download, unpack
• Copy the .dll (jf-nested-dielectric-master\binaries\v1.0.5\win64\arnold_4.1) and the .mtd (jf-nested-dielectric-master\source\mtoa) files to: C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2017\shaders
• Copy the .py (jf-nested-dielectric-master\source\mtoa) file to: C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2017\scripts\mtoa\ui\templates
• Start Maya

Documentation:
github.com/Psyop/jf-nested-dielectric/blob/master/documentation/jf_nested_dielectric_manual.pdf?raw=true

If you have a really bright light source you’ll get fireflies:

• Turn on Clamping (Set the Max Value around 2).

Cheers, D