Using the Material Editor

Overview

The Material Editor is used to interact with and modify materials that have been created in a Digital Content Creation (DCC) tool. You can apply textures to various types of objects and terrain.

Users can also apply shaders and adjust Material parameters and properties from with the editor. This tutorial covers the basics steps of creating new materials, browsing for materials, and a brief look at the material settings window.

Opening the Material Editor

You can open the Material Editor in two different ways. Either press M or use the main menu bar.

To open the Material Editor by using the menu bar, on the View menu, click Open View Pane, and then click Material Editor.

Layout

The toolbar is at the top of the window. Under the toolbar are two sections: The material browser is on the left and the Material Settings section is on the right side.

The toolbar at the top of the Material Editor window has shortcut buttons for frequently used actions.

Button	Description
Assign Item to Selected Objects	Assigns a material to the object that is selected in the Editor.
Reset Material on Selection to Default	Resets the material of the selected object; it works if you've earlier assigned a material other than the default one.
Get Item from Selected Object	Shows the material that is assigned to the selected object.
Pick Material from Object	Gets the material of an object in the scene by using the picking tool. You have to click with the picker on the object from which you want to get the material.
Materials Library Browser	Select a different library. See below for more information.
Generate cubemap for selected object	This function will create a cubemap for the selected object in this specific environment. See Creating an Auto-Cubemap for more information.
Open large material preview	Click this to get a larger preview of your material which can rotated to view on different angles and objects.

Creating a New Material

Create a new material by clicking the Add New Item button.

Save the material in the desired folder. After saving the new material as "testmaterial," the material will be added to the material browser.

You can also add a material by right-clicking the empty Material Editor space. A context menu will be displayed, where you can select Add New Material.

Creating a New Multi-Material

If you want to have a material with more than one material ID, you have to create a multi-material.

To create a multi-material, right-click the empty Material Editor space and select Add New Multi-Material.

You now have to set the number of Sub Materials/Material IDs that you want to have.

Right-click the material that you created and select Set Number of Sub Materials.

You can set the numbers of material IDs by pressing the arrows or by typing in the desired number.

Copying an Existing Material

Lets assume you have an existing material, or a sub-material that you want to copy to another material. The Material Editor allows for a simple copy/paste routine to achieve this.

Start by selecting the material which you want to copy. Now right click on one of the parameters to bring up the context menu. Now select Copy All.

Because Material (.mtl) files are basically .xml files, you can even paste this straight into notepad and you'll see the copied data structure:

With the data from the material copied, now select your material which you want to paste the data into.

Same as before, right click over the parameters of your material to open the context menu and this time select Paste.

You should now see those settings copied over and now visible on any objects using that material.

When you Paste the content, it's worthwhile pasting it twice as a glitch can sometimes occur where only certain information is copied on the first go and requires a second paste for the additional content.

You can also use the Copy Category function to copy individual categories such as the "Lighting Settings" or "Texture Maps" categories if you only wish to copy specific content from one material to another while keeping the other content untouched.

Material Browser

In the material browser, which you can find at the left side of the material editor, you can browse all your material. In the option box above you can select which materials you want to see in the browser.

All materials for example shows all materials that are in your working folder, no matter if they are checked in or not.
Used in level shows just the materials which are used in your level.

In the material browser right click menu you can find most of the functions that can be found in the toolbar, and some perforce commands.

The functions you can find there, beside the perforce commands, are all basic commands like copy/paste/delete. They will only influence the selected material.

The padlock icon next to a material indicates that it is read-only. Any changes you make to a locked material will be lost, even if you save the level.

If you wish to edit an existing material, extract it from the .pak file it's located in and ensure that read-only is not checked on the file properties.

Documentation

Using the Material Editor

Overview

Opening the Material Editor

Layout

Creating a New Material

Creating a New Multi-Material

Copying an Existing Material

Material Browser

Further Reading

Documentation

Using the Material Editor

Overview

Opening the Material Editor

Layout

Toolbar

Creating a New Material

Creating a New Multi-Material

Copying an Existing Material

Material Browser

Further Reading