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mesh_tessellation_base

A mesh_tessellation_base material is used for tessellated meshes, dynamic meshes and skinned meshes. It is automatically replaced by its non-tessellating copy when the camera moves away from the surface to the summed distance Distance + Threshold. Keep in mind that if there will be two identical tessellated objects in the scene that are scaled differently, it might be necessary to create two separate materials with different displacement Scales.

Notice
Tessellation is intended to add extruded details (spikes and indentations, fine embossed details) rather than drastically change the relief of the coarse mesh. Extreme extrusion makes it prone to visual artifacts.

Materials are modified via Materials Editor.

Other Tessellation Materials

All other tessellation materials such as:

are the same as their simple mesh_ variants except for tessellation-related parameters described here. Besides, they do not use parallax mapping.

See also

A tutorial how to use tessellation.

States

In the States tab you can set rendering passes and available options. Enabling some of the states activates additional textures and parameters in the Textures and Parameters tabs respectively.

The states divide into 2 groups: Passes and Options.

Possible values for an Ambient pass:

GUI name XML name Description
Skip none Material is not rendered.
Opacity opacity Material diffuse colors are blended with the ambient color.
Transparent transparent Material diffuse colors are not modulated by the ambient color.
LightMap lightmap Material is rendered lit by a light map. Material diffuse colors are multiplied by the light map and the ambient color. To create and automatically set a light map for an object, a Lightmap Generation Tool can be used.

Possible values for a Light omni, Light proj and Light world passes:

GUI name XML name Description
Skip none Material is not rendered.
Phong rim phong-rim Material is rendered with a Phong rim shading (by default) or simple Phong shading*
Anisotropy anisotropy Material is rendered with anisotropic shading. This shader creates surfaces with elliptical (anisotropic) specular highlights (for example, reflections from the brushed metal).

* The shading to be used depends on the Phong rim option (or a render_use_phong_rim console command value).

Possible values for all the other passes:

GUI name XML name Description
Skip none Material is not rendered during the pass.
Default default Material is rendered during the pass.

Possible values for a Detail option:

GUI name XML name Description
Skip disabled A material is not rendered.
Overlay first overlay_0

Material is rendered in the Overlay mode: detail textures are blended with the base ones according to the first UV coordinates.

The formula is: A + (B - 0.5) * k,
where A and B are base and detail textures correspondingly;
k is an alpha blending coefficient that allows smooth interpolation between alpha values of base and detail textures.

For example, if Alpha test option for material is disabled, k = base Alpha * detail Alpha.

Overlay second overlay_1 Material is rendered in the Overlay mode: detail textures are blended with the base ones according to the second UV coordinates.
Multiply first multiply_0

Material is rendered in the Multiply mode: detail textures are blended with the base ones according to the first UV coordinates.

The formula is: mix(A,A * B,k),
where A and B are base and detail textures correspondingly;
k is an alpha blending coefficient that allows smooth interpolation between alpha values of base and detail textures.

Multiply second multiply_1 Material is rendered in the Multiply mode: detail textures are blended with the base ones according to the second UV coordinates.

All the other options can be either enabled or disabled by ticking the respective boxes.

The states available for this kind of materials are listed below.

Passes

Passes specify during which rendering pass the material should be rendered. They are modified in the Passes field of the States tab.

GUI name XML name Description
Deferred deferred Deferred rendering pass. Specifies if the material should be rendered during the deferred pass. For the transparent surfaces see also a Post deferred option.
Auxiliary auxiliary Auxiliary rendering pass. Specifies if the material should be rendered into the auxiliary buffer to create a custom post-process.
Refraction refraction Specifies if the material should be rendered during the refraction pass. For transparent surfaces see also Post refraction option.
Velocity velocity Specifies if the material should be rendered in the velocity buffer to create motion blur for moving objects, i.e. physical objects. It makes no sense to write static objects into this buffer as they do not have their own velocity.
Ambient ambient Ambient rendering pass. Specifies, how the material should be rendered during the Ambient light pass for the opaque objects. The actual opacity or transparency of the material depends solely on the set blending options.
Light prob light_prob Probe lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Probe light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.
Light spot light_spot Spot lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Spot light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.
Light omni light_omni Omni-directional lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Omni light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.
Light proj light_proj Projected lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Projected light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.
Light world light_world World lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the World light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.

Options

The following options are set in the Options field of the States tab.

GUI name XML name Description
Detail detail Specifies if additional detail textures with the specified UV channel will be provided for the material. Such textures allow to render unique details (such as dirt or worn spots).
Ambient emission emission Specifies if a light emission (glow) should be simulated for the material and an additional emission texture will be provided for the material.
Shadow shafts volumetric Specifies if volumetric shadows from world lights will be rendered from surfaces with the applied material.

Textures

The textures available for this kind of materials are listed below.

Tessellation

Tessellation textures are loaded and modified in the Tessellation field of the Textures tab.

GUI name XML name Description Channels
HeightheightDisplacement map that stores height displacement information for mesh vertices. It is created along with a normal map in the Normal Mapper. R
TessellationtessellationTessellation map (aka the density map) allows to indicate mesh polygons that should be tessellated more densely and therefore this area will rendered with increased number of details. The polygons of lower density will be tessellated into less or no details, enhancing the performance. (By default, i.e. without a tessellation texture, the mesh is tessellated to the maximum).

The darker the area, the less polygons are tessellated.

Tessellation texture is created manually using any of the mesh textures as a base (a diffuse texture, a normal or a height map).
Notice
The tessellation texture is sampled at vertices of the control mesh. If the darkened area is too small to cover control mesh vertices, it will not affect the final result!
R

Base Textures

Base textures are loaded and modified in the Base field of the Textures tab.

GUI name XML name Description Channels
Diffuse diffuse Diffuse map. A texture to define a surface's main color. RGBA:
  • RGB values store a color of the texture
  • An alpha (A) value contains either transparency values or a detail mask
Notice
An alpha (A) value will store transparency values if an Alpha test option is enabled. Otherwise it will store a detail mask.
Normal normal Normal map. A texture to store information about a surface's normals deviation. RG:
  • RG values contain two components of a normal
  • The third component's value is calculated from the given components in run-time
Specular specular Specular map. A texture to define a surface's shininess and highlight color. RGBA:
  • RGB values store reflection color and intensity (black color means no reflection)
  • An alpha (A) value specifies the specular power: 0 means specular highlights are very bright and intense, 256 - specular highlights are dull

Detail Textures

Detail textures are present if Detail option on the States tab is enabled and can be loaded and modified in the Detail field of the Textures tab.

GUI name XML name Description Channels
Diffuse diffuse_detail Diffuse map. A texture to define a surface's main color. RGBA:
  • RGB values store a color of the texture
  • An alpha (A) value contains either transparency values or a detail mask
Notice
An alpha (A) value will store transparency values if an Alpha test option is enabled. Otherwise it will store a detail mask.
Normal normal_detail Normal map. A texture to store information about a surface's normals deviation. RG:
  • RG values contain two components of a normal
  • The third component's value is calculated from the given components in run-time
Specular specular_detail Specular map. A texture to define a surface's shininess and highlight color. RGBA:
  • RGB values store reflection color and intensity (black color means no reflection)
  • An alpha (A) value specifies the specular power: 0 means specular highlights are very bright and intense, 256 - specular highlights are dull

Additional Textures

Additional emission texture is present only if an Ambient emission option is enabled. Textures are modified in the Additional field of the Textures tab.

GUI name XML name Description Channels
Emission emission Emission map. A texture to store information about the light emission. RGBA:
  • RGB values store a glowing color
  • An alpha (A) value stores a glow mask: black is for non-glowing areas, white - for glowing ones
Ambient ambient

Ambient map. A texture to modulate the global environment illumination (when an object is lighter at the top from sky above, darker at the bottom from the ground below etc).

The texture takes effect only if the scene environment texture is loaded.

RGBA:

  • RGB values store a glowing color
  • An alpha (A) value stores a glow mask: black is for non-glowing areas, white - for glowing ones

Second UV map channel.

LightMap Textures

Light map texture is present if a LightMap option is selected to be used during an Ambient pass. The texture can be loaded and modified in the LightMap field of the Textures tab.

GUI name XML name Description Channels
Lightmap lightmap Light map. A texture to store lighting information.

RGB:

  • RGB values store a color of the light
  • An alpha (A) value does not influence anything and is used solely for viewing convenience

Second UV map channel.

Notice
The above textures with the _d (diffuse map), _n (normal map) and _s (specular map) postfixes in the name respectively, located in a folder named uncompressed, will be automatically compressed by the engine.

Parameters

In the Parameters tab you can set or modify base and additional parameters.

Parameters of different types are set in different ways:

  • expression - vector values can be set either in the field near the parameter or in the dialog window opened when double clicking this field
  • slider - the value can be set either by smoothly moving the slider of the scroll box or manually in the box near the parameter (if required, the value bigger than maximum one for the slider can be set)
  • color - the color can be chosen in the dialog window, activated after double clicking the color field

The parameters available for this kind of materials are listed below.

Tessellation Parameters

GUI name XML name Type Description
Scaletessellation_scaleslider Scale of heights (according to the provided height map) that are used to displace vertex positions:

The minimum value of 0 results in no tessellation.

The higher the value, the farther the vertices are displaced and the more protruded the tessellated surface is.
Powertessellation_powerslider Power that controls how fast the tessellation displacement (Scale parameter) decreases with the distance. The Power parameter is in effect within the set Distance.

The higher the value, the faster the polygons become flat (non-displaced) when the camera moves away from them.
Factortessellation_factorslider Factor that controls how much the polygons of the control mesh are subdivided. When the surface is tessellated, the tessellation map contributes to the result.

The higher the value, the more refined the contour of the tessellated surface will be.
Lengthtessellation_lengthslider Increases the minimum possible length of the edge (in units) for polygons created by tessellation. If tessellated polygons have a smaller edge, the set tessellation factor is automatically decreased. This parameter allows to skip tessellation of small and unnoticeable polygons in order to save performance.

By the minimum value of 0 there is no optimization and the polygons are tessellated by the factor.

The higher the value, the larger the tessellated polygons are. This results in rougher and sharper edges.
Distancetessellation_distanceslider Distance measured from the Threshold within which the tessellation gradually scaled down until it is completely disabled. To the end of this distance tessellation Factor and Scale will be equal to zero and the control mesh is rendered as it is.
Thresholdtessellation_thresholdslider Distance measured from the polygons within which the tessellation is at its maximum level: polygons are tessellated according to the set Factor and displaced by Scale. To the end of Threshold distance these parameters will not be attenuated or decreased.
Attenuationtessellation_attenuationslider Attenuation power that controls how fast the tessellation partitioning (Factor parameter) decreases with the distance. The Attenuation parameter is in effect within the set Distance.

The higher the value, the faster the number of tessellated polygons decreases when the camera moves away from them.

Too high values may result in a visible wave-like height changes as vertices are merged.

Transform Parameters

Texture transformation parameters are modified in the Transform field of the Parameters tab. Detail materials transformation parameters are present only if the Detail option is enabled.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Base base_transform expression Base texture coordinates transformation. A vector of the four float components, consisting of two pairs of vector elements:
  1. Scale texture coordinates, along X and Y axes.

    For example, by the scale of 2;2 the texture will be repeated four times on the surface.

  2. An offset of the texture respectively to its initial position along X and Y axes.

    For example, by the offset of 0.5 along X axis the texture will be repositioned to the right (so the left edge of the texture will be rendered in the center).

Detail detail_transform expression Detail texture native coordinates transformation. A vector of the four float components, consisting of two pairs of vector elements:
  1. Scale texture coordinates, along X and Y axes.
  2. An offset of the texture respectively to its initial position along X and Y axes.

Notice
Besides the native texture coordinates transformation, there are more options of setting texture coordinates. They are described in the Texture coordinates transformation article.

Auxiliary Parameters

Auxiliary color parameter is present only if an Auxiliary pass is set as a Default. The parameter is modified in the Auxiliary field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Auxiliary auxiliary_color color A color picker to choose an auxiliary color for the Auxiliary rendering pass.

Detail Parameters

Detail parameters are present only if the a Detail option in the Options tab is enabled and a detail material is created.

Detail material parameters are modified in the Detail field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Diffuse detail_diffuse slider A coefficient to modify the visibility of the detail diffuse map:
  • By the minimum of 0, the diffuse texture is not visible at all
  • By the maximum of 1, the diffuse texture is fully appeared
Normal detail_normal slider A coefficient to modify the visibility of the detail normal map.
Specular detail_specular slider A coefficient to modify the visibility of the detail specular map.

Ambient Parameters

Ambient parameter is modified in the Ambient field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Environment environment_scale slider Environment lighting scale. A coefficient to scale how much the global environment texture illuminates the surface.

The higher the value, the more the colors will be corrected (lightened or darkened) according to the environment component.

Lightmap Parameters

Light map parameter is present only if an LightMap option is set during the Ambient Emission rendering pass. The parameter is modified in the Lightmap field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Scale lightmap_scale slider A coefficient to scale the intensity of illumination by the light map.

By the value of 0 the light map does not illuminate the surface with this material applied.

The higher the value, the more visible and the brighter a light map is.

Emission Parameters

Emission parameters are present only if an Ambient emission option is enabled and are modified in the Emission field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Color emission_color color

A color picker to choose an ambient emission color for the emission texture.

Scale emission_scale slider Visibility scale for the emission texture.

The higher the value, the more visible emission texture is: light areas will be lighter and brighter.
Glow glow_scale slider A coefficient to scale the glow component of the emission texture, which creates a halo around an object surface.

The higher the value, the larger the halo and the brighter the material.
Notice
To increase the glow parameter a lot, go to the Render settings -> Postprocess tab -> Glow small parameter to increase the glow throughout in the scene. After that, readjust the glow on the per-material basis.

Shading Parameters

Shading parameters are modified in the Shading field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Diffuse diffuse_color color

A color picker to choose the color of the diffuse map.

Diffuse diffuse_scale slider A coefficient to scale the brightness of the diffuse map.

The higher the value, the brighter the diffuse map is.
Specular specular_color color

A color picker to choose the color of the specular map.

Specular specular_scale slider A coefficient to scale the brightness of the specular map reflections.

The default value of 1 grants the correct color. The higher the value, the brighter the specular reflections are.
Glossiness specular_power slider

A coefficient to modify size of the highlight (Phong lighting) of the specular map:

  • Low values imitate wider highlights, typically appropriate to create diffuse reflection from the mat surface
  • High values imitate pinpoint highlights, typically appropriate to create uniform reflection of light rays from the glossy surface
Phong rim width phong_rim_width slider A coefficient to modify the width of an additionally lightened rim of an object, where incident light is perpendicular to surface being lit:
  • By the minimum value of 0, there is no additional lightning of the rim by Phong shading
  • By the maximum value of 1, all the shaded area is lightened according to the scale parameter
Phong rim scale phong_rim_scale slider A coefficient to scale brightness of the additionally lightened rim at the edges of an object, where incident light is perpendicular to surface being lit:
  • By the minimum value of 0, there is no additional lightning of the rim by Phong shading
  • By the maximum value of 1, the shaded edges are the brightest
Anisotropy angle anisotropy_angle slider A coefficient to modify the main angle determining direction of the anisotropy reflective highlight.

The angle in range from 0 to 180 degrees determines a clockwise rotation of the reflective highlight.
Anisotropy scale anisotropy_scale slider A coefficient to control the anisotropy strength and thus the shape of the reflective highlight:
  • By the minimum value of 0, the material shows no anisotropic properties. Phong shading is applied
  • By the maximum value of 4, the material has the highest anisotropy and most directional and narrow reflections from the surface
Fresnel bias fresnel_bias slider A coefficient to compensate for the Fresnel effect and set the minimum necessary reflectance level.

By the minimum value of 0, there is no compensation for the Fresnel effect.

Increasing the value leads to more prominent overall reflections.

By the maximum value of 1, reflections are at their maximum and the Fresnel power parameter does not influence the rendered image.
Fresnel power fresnel_power slider

A coefficient to scale Fresnel effect that defines the amount of reflectance depending on the viewing angle:

  • Low values provide good reflectance even at a large viewing angles
  • High values provide the reflectance only at a small viewing angles. When looking at a large viewing angle, from above, there are no reflections rendered
Last update: 2017-07-03
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