The material editor is a module used to create materials which are something like shaders.
You don't have to script your material, all is WYSIWYG.
Overview:
The Play/Pause/Stop Button allow you to preview the material without any scene
General
Material name : Name of the current material in edition.
Material Preview
: You can drag'n'drop the preview in the scene viewer on an object.
Priority : define the render priority of an object, with transparency according to the z order.
example: the cube and the sphere have 50% transparency
Cube priority : 127 | Sphere priority : 127
Cube priority : 128 | Sphere priority : 127
Z- offset : apply an offset to the object according to the camera
example: a red and green sphere identical, applying an offset to the red ball...
without offset
with offset
Alpha ref : rout the mask alpha with a threshold
example: a tree foliage
Alpha Ref to 0
AlphaRef to 50%
Double Side : render the inverse face to the normal
example: a tree
Without double side
With
Warning : Activate this option multiply by 2 the number of poylgons related to the material.
?
Additive Blending : Render an object translucently without an alpha channel
example: a glow effect
Without alpha blending
With
Depth Write : Define if the object must be sorted to render according to the z order.
example: 2 superposed plans with an alpha channel texture
depth write selected
depth write uncheked unselected
- Use Z Shell for transparency: in some rare case, the texture alpha blending when used with the double side option does not produce the desired result, in this case test this option.
- Draw outline : draw the outline of the object
example:
Without outline
With
The outline color depending of the ambient color of the scene.
- Surface ID : define a surface number to be access via the ShiVa3DScript.
- Receive fog : To receive or not the fog, defined into the Ambience Editor.
example:
Without fog
With
Texturing
Effect :
You can modulate effect using
the Intensity Slider [0-1]
None : no texture used
Simple : only the map 0 texture is used ( Map0.rgba )
Modulate : superpose the textures of map 0 and 1 ( Map0.rgba x Map1.rgb )
Paint : with the P key, paint the texture of the map 1 on the map 0 ( Interpolate by Vtx.a )
Decal : sticker effect, render the map1 on the map0 in function of the alpha ( Interpolate by Map1.a)
Noise : Used with reflection/refraction in the map1( Map1 as DuDv )
Saturate : as modulate but with additive method ( Map0.rgba+ Map1.rgb )
Map :
Effect map 0 : base map
Effect map 1 : effect map
Normal map : relief map
use effect map 0 uvs allow to use the uv of the map 0 if modified by the "texture mapping modifier"
Specular map : specular map
use effect map 0 uvs allow to use the uv of the map 0 if modified by the "texture mapping modifier"
Texture Mapping modifier
Generation Mode :
Explicit : the default uv as parametric in the
modeling software.
Spherical : Generate UV used with a sphere map.
Camera
: project the texture on the object according to the camera position
Planar XY: Generate planar UV on XY axis.
Planar YZ: Generate planar UV on YZ axis
Planar XZ: Generate planar UV on XZ axis
Scrolling Modifier : apply a scrolling on the texture for the following parameter.
Wave type :
- Constant: fixed value
-
Sinus
:
-Triangle :
-
Square :
- Sawthooth :
- Sawthooth Inv :
- Sinus Noise : like sinus added a
randomised noise
Base : offset the texture
Amp : amplitude of the move Phase : timed effect offset Freq : effect speed
Scaling Modifier : modifier of the texture repetition
Texture parameters
Addressing:
repeat : repeat texture
clamp : complete with the last texture pixel
mirror : mirror the texture
Filtering :
Nearest : simple and fast filter
Bilinear : smooth texture
when it is rendered smaller or larger than its size
Tri linear : extension of
filtering bilinear, interpolates also the mipmaps
Nearest (no mipmaps) :
Bilinear (no mipmaps) :
mipmaps : pre-computed collection and optimised for images witch come
with the main image to accelerate the render.
Alpha mode:
- Opacity : use texture alpha as an opacity mask
- Opacity ( no blending) : use texture alpha as a binary opacity mask, linked to the alpha ref parameters
- Effect Map 1 mask : use effect map 0 texture alpha as a mask for effect map 1
Lighting
Method
Receive dynamic lighting :
Per vertex : Calculate lighting with the vertex and interpolates then for the color with the pixel
Per pixel lighting : Calculate lighting for each rendered pixel
Toon shading : not photo realistic render, requires a lighting with the pixel shader, can be associated Draw outline
Receive static lighting :
Per vertex : calculate a static lighting with the vertex with the same method
Light map : calculate lighting and then write it in a texture
Include in Static Lighting Computation : check this if you want the lightmap engine to compute object which doesn't receive static lightning.
Shadowing
To receive and/or project dynamic shadows. The color of the shadows parameter in Ambiance Editor
Colors :
Shininess :
specular level to 0.05 :
specular level to 0.5 :
specular level to 1 :
Batch processing
Feature only for Advanced version
Choose which Material attributes you want to change on all currently opened materials. Note that you need to open at least two materials to have the option enabled.
TIPS :To retrieve Materials from selected objects : Open the SceneExplorer, select objects, switch to the Resources tab, sort resources by type.
Materials selected are those used by the selected objects. You can drag 'n drop them from the SceneExplorer directly into the Material Editor.
Advanced Effects
Fresnel :
"the Fresnel effect: having a surface sharing reflective and non-reflective properties according to the viewing angle and the surface normal"
Reference
