NVIDIA Material Definition Language – Handbook

NVIDIA's Material Definition Language (MDL) is used by rendering systems to define surface and volume appearance. To help artists, designers, programmers and managers understand and use MDL, the MDL Handbook is a work-in-progress that provides background, theory and practical examples of the language.

This website provides interim versions of the MDL Handbook; as a chapter nears completion, it will be available here. Some chapters may be missing explanatory text or the text may not yet be in its final form, but the material examples, diagrams and renderings may already be useful. See the Revision history page for an ongoing description of updates and changes as they are made to the version of the Handbook available from this website.

The HTML version of the MDL Handbook provides search and navigation features. See the “Help” page available from a button in the upper right corner of the main page:

MDL Handbook as of 5 May 2021

Versions of the MDL Handbook as PDF files (in A4 and US Letter format) are available through links in the black bar at the bottom of the main Handbook page, and here as well:

MDL Handbook (A4 format) download

MDL Handbook (US Letter format) download

NVIDIA MDL links and documentation

MDL Handbook revision history




5 May 2021, 14:54, rev.345460 © 2021 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.