Material Editor

Overview

Inside the Material Editor you can browse, create, edit and assign materials to objects, terrain, etc.

It also allows you to copy existing materials and use them as a starting point for your specific material needs. Materials files (*.mtl) are ideally located in the same folder as the object they were created for. However, as they can be freely assigned to any objects inside your game project, the only restriction is to place them inside the game project folder structure.

Editing materials not only allows you to choose textures and shaders, but also fine-tune placement, animation of textures and tweaking parameters relevant for a chosen shader type.

For more information about material effects, shaders, and texture maps, see the sub-pages of the Legacy Material Editor.

To open the Material Editor, go to Tools → Material Editor.

Click on the name of the area names below to learn more about them.

Accessed via the icon situated at the top-right corner of the tool, the Menu contains the following options:

Option	Description
New	Creates a new material from scratch.
Pick Material From Scene	Use the material picker to select and open a material already used in the scene.
Open	Open an existing material.
Close	Closes the currently selected material.
Save	Saves the material.
Save As...	Saves the current material under a different name.
Recent Files	Open recently opened materials.

Option	Description
Undo	Undoes the last action.
Redo	Redoes a previously undone action.

Option	Description
Convert To Multi-Material	Converts the current single material into a multi-material.
Convert To Single Material	Converts the current multi-material into a single material.
Add Sub-Material	Adds a sub-material to the material.
Set Sub-Material Slot Count	Lets you quickly remove the last n number of sub-materials. This does not mean it imposes a limit on the number of sub-materials a material can have; you can still add and remove other sub-materials.

Toolbars

Option

Description

Customize

Opens the toolbar customization window allowing users to customize existing toolbars, and/or create new toolbars within the Material Editor.

Lock Toolbars

When disabled, the positions of toolbars and spacers within the Material Editor can be changed by drag and drop.

Spacers

The following options allow users to use spacers in positioning their toolbars.

Insert Expanding Spacer	Adds an expanding spacer to the toolbar layout; an expanding spacer pushes all elements situated at its ends to the edge of a panel.
Insert Fixed Spacer	Adds a fixed spacer, which has a fixed size of one icon.

The Spacers menu options are only available when Toolbars → Lock Toolbars is disabled.

Toolbars

Lists all default and custom toolbars created for the Material Editor, allowing you to select which toolbar you'd like to hide or display.

When a tool has a toolbar, whether this is a default one or a custom one, the options above are also available when right-clicking in the toolbar area (only when a toolbar is already displayed).

Option	Description
Panels	Adds the panels in the Material Editor if they are not there. Doesn't do anything if they are.
Reset layout	Resets the layout to the default layout.

Option	Description
Go to documentation	Opens the documentation page for the Material Editor.

2. Materials Overview

In this panel, the material (or in the case of multi-materials, the sub-materials that are contained in your material) are shown.

3. Asset Browser

Tool-specific Asset Browser panels let users view and edit the assets within the tool that is currently being used. Unlike the stand-alone Asset Browser tool, the assets that are displayed on this panel are pre-filtered by default; meaning it only displays the assets that are relative to the tool itself.

Menu options and their functionalities on both the stand-alone and the tool-specifc Asset Browsers are the same and they can be used to achieve the same goal. For more information about the Asset Browser Menu options, please refer to the Asset Browser page.

When the Sync Selection button in the toolbar is active, selecting a different asset in a tool-specific Asset Browser will instantly open it. This button makes it very easy to cycle through different assets and edit them on the fly.
You can drag an asset from the standalone Asset Browser and drop it onto the asset picker fields on the Material Editor's Properties panel. If the asset is compatible, e.g. textures, the field will be highlighted in green and the asset will be assigned to it; otherwise, it will be highlighted in red and the asset will not be assigned.

When right clicking on a (sub-)material, the following options appear:

Option	Description
Highlight	Highlights objects with this material in the viewport.
Rename Sub-Material	Renames the selected sub-material.
Reset Sub-Material	Resets the selected sub-material to its original settings.
Remove Sub-Material	Removes the selected sub-material.
Convert To Multi-Material	Converts the current single material into a multi-material.
Convert To Single Material	Converts the current multi-material into a single material.
Add Sub-Material	Adds a sub-material to the material.
Set Sub-Material Slot Count	Lets you quickly remove the last n number of sub-materials. This does not mean it imposes a limit on the number of sub-materials a material can have; you can still add and remove other sub-materials.

4. Properties

The Material Editor has basic material properties that are common to all materials, as well as shader parameters that can be adjusted if shaders are enabled.

Material Settings

Setting

Description

Shader

Here you can select the shader you want to use. Generally you use illum/vegetation/glass shader. For more information, see Shaders.

Surface Type

You can select a surface type for your material here. The surface type sets up what kind of sound will be played or what kind of particle effects will be spawned when you shoot the object.
For an old wooden table you would choose something like "wood", or you could even create your own custom surface type through the Material Effects system.
This can be applied to any object and will result in the associated particles, decals and sounds being played on that object, so yes, you can make a rock bleed!


mat_wood	mat_rock	mat_flesh

Opacity Settings

These settings are important if using alpha channels for transparency, for example when creating leaves and wire fences.

Setting

Description

Opacity

With the opacity value you can switch between Alpha Blend and Alpha Test.

Opacity value: 0-99 -> alpha blend. Opacity value: 100 -> alpha test.

With alpha blend you can get very soft and semi transparent results, but it is more expensive than alpha test.

Alpha Test

If you want to use alpha test, which is less expensive, set the opacity value to 100 and the AlphaTest value to 50.

50 is the default value. A value below 50 tends more to the white color of the alpha map. A value above 50 tends more to the black color of the alpha map.


Default alpha test = 50	Alpha test = 10	Alpha test = 90

Additive

When using a semi-transparent material like glass, use the additive function. The material color will be added to the background color. The resulting color will the be brighter.

Lighting Settings

This section controls the material color and specular settings.

Setting	Description
Diffuse Color	Controls the material diffuse color by double clicking the color square. The default RGB value is 255,255,255 and should usually be left at 255,255,255 for Physically Based Shading (PBS). Choose the color on the left side by clicking the desired color. To get the best quality rendering, it is recommended to always use 255,255,255 diffuse with no color input and adjust the diffuse texture accordingly. Using the slider next to the color you can control the brightness. You can also type in the RGB code in the fields underneath the color spectrum. There is also a color swatch available in the Standard tab.
Specular Color	The specular color is the reflective or shiny component of a material when light shines onto the object. To correctly set up PBS materials please see the documentation for Physically Based Shading (PBS). Specific metals reflect a certain color, e.g.: Gold = 255,219,145, Silver = 250,247,242, Copper = 250,209,194 (see the lookup table at the bottom of the Texture and Material Setup for PBS page). All other non-metals should be within the sRGB color range of 40,40,40 -> 60,60,60. They should never be above 80,80,80! As long as you adhere to the PBS specular color guidelines, your materials should look 'physically plausible' no matter what the lighting conditions are (in images below, you'll see gold, silver and copper in different lighting conditions): From left to right and top to bottom: midday, evening, night, neutral
Emissive Color	The Emissive Color defines the color of the emitted light ("glow") when the Emissive Intensity is not zero. In case an emittance map is used, the emissive color gets multiplied with the emittance map color.
Emissive Intensity (kcd/m2)	The Emissive Intensity defines how much light gets emitted from the surface (previously known as 'glow'). The intensity is specified in kilonits (same as kcd/m2) which is the physical unit for Luminance. A candle flame has a typical Emissive Intensity of 10 kcd/m2. Please note that for surfaces, emittance is only supported by the Illum shader and is ignored by the Vegetation and HumanSkin shaders.
Smoothness	The smoothness defines how rough or glossy a surface is. To correctly set up PBS materials please see the documentation for Physically Based Shading (PBS). Think of it as defining the micro details on a surface, where the normal map defines the macro details. The smoothness map is stored inside the Alpha channel of the normal map (saved with the postfix _ddna). The higher the value you enter for the Smoothness, the tighter the specular highlight will be. In the following picture, from Left to right, we are decreasing the Smoothness value. (Left: Smoothness = 255, very smooth surface, highly reflective, tight specular highlight) (Right: Smoothness = 0, very rough surface, no reflection, wide specular highlight)

Texture Maps

In the material editor are different slots for texture maps. With texture maps, users can control different shader effects.

To add a texture to the material slot, click the Browse button () or copy and paste the texture path into an empty slot.

The Texture Map slot layout is fairly straightforward: the left column displays which type of texture map the slot is associated with and the middle column is where the texture map file is located.

Hovering over the name of a texture gives you a preview of that texture.

The table below shows the textures available for the Illum shader.

The types of Texture Maps available will be different depending on which Shader you have selected.

Texture Map	Channels	Description
Diffuse	RGBA	Defines the albedo color of the surface. Can also contain monochrome Alpha channel to describe alpha transparency.
Normal	RGBA	Uses monochrome Alpha Channel (aka Gloss Map) to describe the Surface's Smoothness inside the Physical Based Rendering System.
Specular (Reflectance)		The texture representing the specular intensity and color of material highlights defined as the "shininess" and color of specular reflections.
Environment	RGBA	Can be defined custom through slot input or can inherited from the "nearest cubemap."
Detail		The texture allowing you to add more details to surfaces. It works like the second material layer and it is not affected by the mapping of the model it is used for.
Heightmap		The texture which is utilized by POM/OBM/Tessellation to give more depth and definition to an object.
Decal	RGBA	A decal that houses an alpha for laying over for example grime or moss on objects.
Second Height Map		Used to add a second texture map to create a blending effect. NOTE: only appears when the Blendlayer box in the Shader Gen Params is ticked. Not all shaders display this box.
Second Diffuse Map	RGBA	Used to add a second texture map to create a blending effect. NOTE: only appears when the Blendlayer box in the Shader Gen Params is ticked. Not all shaders display this box.
Second Bump Map		Used to add a second texture map to create a blending effect. NOTE: only appears when the Blendlayer box in the Shader Gen Params is ticked. Not all shaders display this box.
Emittance		The Emittance map is used to control what portion of the texture will be set to glow or emit.

All of these Texture Maps (for example Diffuse, Normal, Specular) have the following options when they're expanded:

Option

Description

Texture Type

Lets you select the following texture types:

2D
Cube-Map
Nearest cube-map probe for alpha blended
Dynamic 2D map
From User Params

Filter

These options are deprecated.

Is Projected Tex Gen

Tex Gen Type

Lets you select the following options:

Camera
Stream
World

Tiling

Lets you select the following options:

Is TileU
Is TileV
TileU & TileV - You can tile your texture for the U and V axis separately by using the arrow button, the slider, or the text field.

Note that you currently cannot tile normal or specular maps independently of the diffuse map. This is because of material instancing which saves many draw calls.


Texture tiling 1, 1	Texture tiling 5, 5	Texture tiling 1, 3

OffsetU & OffsetV - You can move the texture on the model in U and V direction separately. In the example below, the texture is moved 1.32 in U and 2.17 in V direction:
RotateU, RotateV & RotateW - You can rotate the texture on a model in U and V direction separately. In the example below, the texture is rotated about 45 degree into U and V direction:

Rotator

With the rotator you are able to create a rotating/shifting texture animation. Choose between three different types of rotation by clicking the option box.

Type
- Constant Rotation - Rotation is constant, rotating/shifting in one direction and back:
- Fixed Rotation - Static rotation with no animation. Similar to the rotation function of the tiling menu.
- No Change - Rotator is deactivated.
- Oscillated Rotation - Rotation oscillates from the minimum, to the maximum, and back:
Rate - Defines the number of complete rotation cycles per unit of time. Or in the case of oscillating rotation, defines the rate of change of direction.
Phase - The phase of an oscillation or wave is the fraction of a complete cycle corresponding to an offset in the displacement from a specified reference point in time t = 0.
Amplitude - Defines the maximum value of an oscillation/wave.
CenterU and CenterV - Centers the texture on the model in U and V direction separately.

Oscillator

Like the rotator, the oscillator animates a texture.

TypeU
- Constant Moving - Texture shifts endlessly in the adjusted direction:
- Fixed Moving - Fixed moving is a static oscillation with no animation.
- Jitter Moving - Texture shifts endlessly in the adjusted direction with jittering added. Has a stroboscope effect:
- No Change - Oscillator is deactivated.
- Pan Moving - Texture shifts in the adjusted direction until the maximum amplitude is reached and back until the minimum amplitude is reached. Comparable to a pendulum movement:
- Stretch Moving - Similar to pan moving, but different in that the texture is stretched and not shifted to the adjusted direction until the maximum amplitude is reached and back until the minimum amplitude is reached:
- Stretch-Repeat Moving - Similar to stretch moving with the difference that the texture stretching restarts at 0 when the maximum amplitude is reached:
TypeV - See TypeU
RateU & RateV
PhaseU & PhaseV
AmplitudeU & AmplitudeV
AmplitudeV

The rotator and oscillator functions are only available for diffuse and decal textures because of technical limitations.

You can create many interesting effects like animated glow by using the decal slot:

Advanced Settings

Setting	Description
Allow layer activation	Enabling this feature will load the material while the layer is loaded. When the layer is not loaded, the material will not be loaded either. For performance reasons, it is recommended to turn this on at all times.
2 sided	Both sides of the face the material is assigned to will be rendered by the engine. You normally use this for objects with alpha channels like leaves which have no thickness.
No shadow	Faces the material is assigned to will not cast a shadow.
Use Scattering	Deprecated
Hide After Breaking	This will make a subset disappear when the object it's attached to breaks procedurally. An example is a liana that disappears when the palm tree it hangs from breaks.
Blend Terrain Color	Color information is tinted based on the terrain color. For example, Grass inherits terrain albedo in a use case.
Traceable Texture	Material will be applied to Ray Traceable decals and will use an alpha map to verify the texture.
Fur Amount	Deprecated
Voxel Coverage	Allows you to control voxel opacity for SVOTI integration.
Heat Amount	Applies heat to the object to be used in conjunction with the thermal vision effect (r_NightVision=3).
Cloak Amount	Deprecated

Shader Params

The Shader Params differ depending on the shader that is selected. See this page (and subpages) for more detailed information for each separate shader.

Shader Generation Params

The Shader Generation Params differ depending on the shader that is selected. See this page (and subpages) for more detailed information for each separate shader.

Vertex Deformation

The Vertex Deformation feature offers the opportunity to influence geometry. You can choose between different types, and each of them will deform your model in a different way.

Vertex deformation is applied in the direction of the vertex normal.

Option	Description
Deform Type	You can choose between different types, and each of them will deform your model in a different way: None - Does not assign any of the types. Sin Wave - Deforms the vertex based on a sinusoid. Sin Wave using vertex color - If the type Sin Wave using vertex color is selected, vertex color information is included in the calculation of Amplitude, Phase and Frequency (see Parameters below). Bulge - Adds noise bumps to the surface. Squeeze - Pushes vertexes along its normals. Bending - Deprecated FixedOffset - Moves vertexes by a fixed offset.
Wave Length	This value sets the wave length of the wave the deformation is based on, equally in all directions; X, Y and Z. A good default value for the wave length is 0.1.
Noise Scale	Changes the scale of the noise texture used for the deformation.
Wave Type	When set to Sin, the following Wave Parameters appear: Level - Scales the object, equally in all directions; X, Y and Z. Amplitude - Strength of deformation (vertex color: b/z). Phase - Offset of deformation. Only interesting when no Frequency is applied (vertex color: r/x) Frequency - Animates deformation (vertex color: g/y).

Layer Presets

The presets are a legacy feature and may be deprecated in the future.

5. Preview

In the Preview panel, you can see what the material you have selected looks like. You can also see the material on several predefined objects, as well as any object in your project, to get a better idea of what it would look like in-game.

When right-clicking on a preview, a context menu appears:

Option	Description
Reset Camera	moves the camera of the Preview back to its default position.
Set Custom Preview Model	Lets you choose an object in your project to preview the material on.

Texture Tooltips

In the new Material Editor, there are two different tooltips that can be displayed, a small one, with many details about the texture, and a large one, that displays the texture image in a bigger window, showing the image in much more detail. This larger tooltip can be displayed by holding CTRL:

Small tooltip: