   shader file types
  How come in most DirectX programming books you only see the .fx file type but when i look in shaders folder for most retail games i see all kinds of diferent shader file types that no books talk about....how am i suppose to learn if everything is kept a secret?   
  The FX system is a wrapper over the top of the HLSL system.Most games just load their HLSL shaders directly without using the FX system because it's rediculously slow at certain things.Also, lots of games use formats specific to their engine -- e.g. DICE use their own internal "surface shaders", which they then compile into HLSL files, which they then compile into assembly, which they put into their data files.   