The material system is the UT2003 system for Creating Textures. It allows utilization of discreet texture layers to achieve more complex final textures. Although Materials can be used on meshes, static meshes, and BSP surfaces, they are not supported by ParticleEmitters or by actors drawn using DT_Sprite. "Material" and "texture" seem to be interchangable names.
See the Material class page for the full class tree of materials.
Shaders
Channels
For the mask channels: The lower the RGB gray fill in Wikipedia:alpha channel, the less of the effect. The Higher, the more prevalent. For example, when a specular channel is set, it is very shiny to begin with. Placing a texture with a 33, 33, 33 RGB alpha channel will make the specular dull because it sets the "masking" of the actually channel. Pure black means = zero visibility, pure white = all visibility. The varying grays in between are used for the degree of masking.
- Diffuse : Base texture goes in here.
- Opacity : When a texture is placed in here, its alpha channel is pulled out and its RGB value is used to determine how opaque the final output it.
- Specular : Basically, a reflection channel best suited for cubemaps/texenvmaps.
- Self Illumination: Setting the texture in here you set for diffuse with cause a full unlit effect. When used in conjunction with its mask, different parts of the texture can become unlit.
- Detail : Detail texture goes in here.
Options
- DetailScale
- Scale of the detail channel on the final output.
- OutputBlending
- Shows how the final output is actually rendered. Options are pretty self explanitory.
- Two Sided
- Texture can be view on a 2D plane from each angle.
- Wireframe
- Renders the texture in a wireframe mode.
- PerformLightingOnSpecular
- As far as I can gather, light actors will apply to the diffuse and specular channel, as opposed to just the diffuse channel. Really good for glass textures around lighting.
- ModulateSpecular2X
- Blends the specular channel twice, making it appear much darker. Can barely see why this is relevant.
- FallbackMaterial
- In case of rendering error, show this texture. Good to put backup textures in here in case, as TNT2 and lower cards can't view specular things like cubemaps.
- Surface Type
- Sets the footstep sound of the material
Related Topics
Discussion
Anthony: Good start? Thought something should be put down.
Tarquin: yup :) but I'll probably rename thi page "Material Topics" unless something can think of a better name
Category:Legacy To Do – Merge info with Texture Topics, see discussion on that page.