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MaterialsII.md

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Materials II: Master Materials and Material Functions

A summarised guide on configuring a master material as well as creating and making use of material functions.

Creating Master Materials

  • Within the Content browser create a new material and open it in the Material viewer window.

  • Parameterise the options which are intended to be used by instances. This is done by adding a VectorParameter, assigning it a Parameter Name, and assigning a Group under the General section of the Details pane.

  • Thereafter, connect the VectorParameter node to the material parameter which is expected to change with instances (i.e base colour).

Adding Textures to Master Materials

  • As previously mentioned, asset textures can be changed by material instances at run time.

  • Select the desired texture within the Content browser.

  • Within the Material viewer window of the master material, hold the T key and click on an empty space to create a Texture Sample node.

  • Right click the texture sample and select Convert to Parameter to have the texture converted to a texture object. This now allows the texture to be modified in instances.

  • Assign the texture object a Parameter Name and Group.

Creating Material Functions

  • Material functions are a way of sharing shader code between multiple materials.

  • Within the Content browser, right click and select Material Function from the Materials & Textures option.

Basic Material Function Example

  • In this example, the goal is to configure the material function to implement basic texture tiling which can be shared between materials.

  • Open the material function within its viewer to edit the function.

  • Within the Material Expression Function Output section of the Details pane, enter an Output Name and Description. This defines the function name and a brief description of what it does.

  • Add a TextureCoordinate node as well as a Function Input node. Within the function input, define an Input Name, Description and Input Type. The objective of this is to multiply the number of tiles.

  • Add a Multiply node and connect the inputs to the TextureCoordinate and Function Input nodes.

  • Connect the result of the Multiply node to the Output TitleOut node.

  • Finally, select Apply.

  • Adjusting the scalar function input will result in varying previewed output.

  • This function can now be added to multiple materials and connected to the Input UVs of texture parameters to enable the tiling.