Materials Tab

This page provides information about the Materials tab in Chaos Vantage.

Overview

The Materials tab offers a list of all materials in the scene as well as options to create a range of materials and textures. The list includes materials imported with .vrscene file as well as materials created in Vantage.

All materials are listed in the Material lister, while material creation happens in the Material editor.

Scene sub-state

Clay mode

Clay mode – When enabled, overrides all scene materials with a simple grey (default) material. See the Clay Mode example below.

Clay color – Specifies the color for the override material. See the Clay Color example below.

Edges – When enabled, renders geometry edges with a specified Color and Thickness in pixels on top of the clay override material. See the Edges example below.

Color – Specifies the color of the edges when Edges is enabled. See the Edges Color example below.

Thickness – Specifies the width of the edges in pixels when Edges is enabled. See the Thickness example below.

Use reflection – When enabled, the original material's reflection setup is used instead of overriding it.

Use refraction – When enabled, the original material's refraction setup is used instead of overriding it. See the Use Refraction example below.

Use bump – When enabled, the original material's bump setup is used instead of overriding it. See the Use Bump example below.

Use opacity – When enabled, the original material's opacity setup is used instead of overriding it.

Use self illumination – When enabled, the original material's self illumination setup is used instead of overriding it.

Material lister

Button	Description
	Assigns a material from the list to the selected objects in the scene. Available only when a material is selected.
	Selects all scene objects based on the material that has been selected in the list. Available only when a material is selected.
	Selects the material of the selected object in the scene. Available only when an object is selected.
	Imports a material(s) from an external supported file and adds it to the Material lister.
	Creates a VRayMtl or other materials (CarPaint, CarPaint2, Hair4, or Light).
	Opens the Preview scene settings dialog.
	Filters the material list and shows only those materials that match the search.
	Clears the search.
	Filter menu that enables the listing of materials based on type e.g. Generic, 2 Sided, Multi material, etc. Use Ctr + click to isolate a selection.
	Controls the amount of columns in the materials list:
	Sorts the material list:

A context menu is available when right-clicking a material thumbnail:

Edit material – Opens the material in the Material editor and allows you to modify its parameters. Currently, this feature is available only for materials created in Vantage.

Select objects with this material – () Selects all scene objects based on the material that has been selected in the list.

Assign this material to the selection – () Assigns a material from the list to the selected objects in the scene.

Assign this material to the selection and its children – Assigns a material from the list to the selected objects and their children in the hierarchy in the scene.

Delete unused Cosmos material assets – Deletes any currently unused imported Cosmos material assets. This frees up GPU memory.

Materials can also be assigned to objects by drag-and-drop. There are also modifier key combinations with drag-and-drop with the following functionality:

Alt+drag-and-drop replaces material on all object with same material.
Ctrl+drag-and-drop assigns material to objects and its children.

Preview Scene Settings

The Preview scene settings dialog contains options to customize how the material thumbnails are rendered.

Load vrscene – Loads a custom vrscene file for the material preview scene.

The material preview scene has the following requirements in order to be loaded properly:

scene must contain at least 1 object with '__thumbnail_target' user attribute
scene objects(nodes) that will be listed in the Preview mesh dropdown must have a '__thumbnail_target' user attribute set. Different objects must have incremental values e.g __thumbnail_target=1, __thumbnail_target=2

Features of the loaded material preview scene:

scene lights will be listed and their color, intensity and enable/disable properties can be modified
scene cameras will be listed in the Preview camera dropdown list
objects that have a '__thumbnail_target' user attribute set will be listed in the Preview mesh dropdown

Sample preview scene with a background, 2 cameras, studio light setup, a sphere and a teapot can be downloaded using the download button.

Download

Please note that the loaded scene will replace the current preview scene. If there are no lights and/or an environment texture or color set then the preview thumbnail will render black.

Samples – Specifies the samples per pixel for refining the material thumbnail. Low values speed up thumbnail generation at the cost of quality.

Preview mesh – Specifies the mesh to be used in the material thumbnail:

Preview camera – Specifies the render camera for the material thumbnails:

Environment mode – Specifies the mode which will be used for scene lighting.

Texture – Enables the use of an environment texture for lighting. When this option is selected, Load environment and Rotation parameters appear.
Solid Color – Enables the use of a solid color for lighting. When this option is selected, Environment Color parameter appears.

Load environment – Loads an image for Environment. This option is available only when Environment mode is set to Texture.

Flip horizontally – Flips the environment image horizontally. This option is available only when Environment mode is set to Texture.

Rotation – Specifies a rotation angle in degrees for the Environment texture. This option is available only when Environment mode is set to Texture.

Intensity – Specifies the intensity of the Environment lighting.

Rim Light – Enables/disables and controls the intensity and color of the rim light in the default preview scene.

Fill Light – Enables/disables and controls the intensity and color of the fill light in the default preview scene.

Front Light – Enables/disables and controls the intensity and color of the front light in the default preview scene.

Internal Lights – Enables/disables and controls the intensity and color of the internal light in the default preview scene. Useful for previewing two sided materials.

Close – Closes the Preview scene settings dialog.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate the effect that individual Clay Mode parameters have on the scene. Click on any image to view it at a higher resolution.