Base Material File Format

A version of the .basemat file.

A name of the base material. Materials inherited from the base material refer to it by the name. The name is also used to generate the GUID for the base material in runtime.

A GUID for the base material.

The guid attribute is optional. The GUID for the base material will be generated from its name in runtime, if the guid attribute isn't specified.

The prefix added to all material parameters when they are passed to the shader.

The attribute that specifies names of definitions that will be passed to the shader.

A flag, indicating if all the base material settings can be changed in the Parameters window or via API.

Available values:

• 0 - unchangeable (by default)
• 1 - changeable

You can set the flag to 1 in the following cases:

• When implementing a custom base material: you can adjust it via the Parameters window to achieve the desired result and then transfer the obtained values to the *.basemat file.
• When customizing an existing base material that is used for a specific effect (e.g., a postprocess material): instead of inheriting a user material that stores a couple of changed parameters, you can adjust the base material so one material corresponds to one effect.

A flag, indicating if a material is displayed in the Materials Hierarchy.

Available values:

• 0 - displayed (by default)
• 1  -  hidden

For example, to create the displayed base material named custom_base, type:

<base_material version="2.7.3.0"  name="custom_base" parameters_prefix="m" editable="0">
...
</base_material>

A polygon color (source image) and a screen buffer color (destination image) multipliers.

Available values for both attributes:

• none - blending is not used.
• zero - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by zero.
• one - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by one.
• src_color - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by the mR, mG, mB, mA components (per component).
• one_minus_src_color - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by the 1 -  mR , 1 -  mG , 1 -  mB , 1 -  mA components (per component).
• src_alpha - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by the mA component.
• one_minus_src_alpha - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by the 1 -  mA component.
• dest_color - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by the bR, bG, bB, bA components (per component).
• one_minus_dest_color - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by the 1 -  bR , 1 -  bG , 1 -  bB , 1 -  bA components (per component).
• dest_alpha - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by the bA component.
• one_minus_dest_alpha - RGBA components of the source/destination image color are multiplied by the 1 -  bA component.

  Where mR, mG, mB, mA are normalized Red, Blue, Green and Alpha material image channels;
  bR, bG, bB, bA are normalized Red, Blue, Green and Alpha background image channels.

For example, if you want the opaque areas to receive a material color and transparent areas to receive a screen buffer color, type:

<blend src="one" dest="one_minus_src_alpha"/>

In the Parameters window, blending option value can be set in the Transparency section of the Common tab.

Rendering order of the material. Specifies the priority of the material rendering.

Available values:

• -128 - 127. The default value is 0. The higher the rendering order, the lower the rendering priority (the material with the -128 order will be rendered first).

Polygon offset of the material. Can be useful to prevent a Z-fighting effect.

Available values:

• 0 - 1024 (powers of 2). The default value is 0.

A shadow mask used to control shadows cast by an object lit by light sources.

Available values:

• Integer, representing a mask. The default value is ~0.

A viewport mask.

Available values:

• Integer, representing a mask. The default value is ~0.

A flag indicating whether the material is transparent.

Available values:

• 0 - the material is opaque
• 1 - the Alpha test blending preset.
• 2 - the Alpha blend, Additive, Multiplicative or Custom blending preset.

A flag indicating if writing in the depth buffer is enabled for a material.

Available values:

• 0 - not used
• 1 - used (by default)

A flag indicating if the native depth pre-pass is performed for a material.

Available values:

• 0 - is performed
• 1 - not performed

A flag indicating if an Overlap option is enabled for a material.

Available values:

• 0 - disabled (by default)
• 1 - enabled

A flag indicating if a Two Sided option is enabled for a material.

Available values:

• 0 - disabled (by default)
• 1 - enabled

A flag indicating if a Depth Test option is enabled for a material.

Available values:

• 0 - disabled
• 1 - enabled (by default)

A flag indicating if a Cast Proj and Omni Shadow option is enabled for a material.

Available values:

• 0 - disabled
• 1 - enabled (by default)

A flag indicating if a Cast World shadow option is enabled for a material.

Available values:

• 0 - disabled
• 1 - enabled (by default)

For example, to enable an Alpha test option, type:

<options alpha_test="1"/>

In the Parameters window, a common option value can be set in the Options section of the Common tab.

Name of the group.

For example, some states of the mesh_base material can be grouped as follows:

<base_material version="2.7.3.0" name="mesh_base" editable="0" parameters_prefix="m" defines="VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE_GEOMETRY">
	<group name="Default">
		<state name="workflow" items="metalness,specular" defines="items"/>
		<state name="deferred" title="Deferred Buffers" tooltip="Deferred buffers rendering">1</state>
		<state name="multiple_environment_probes" transparent="2" defines="name">0</state>
	</group>
</base_material>

Or the group attribute can be used instead of the corresponding element:

<base_material version="2.7.3.0" name="mesh_base" editable="0" parameters_prefix="m" defines="VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE_GEOMETRY">
	<state name="workflow" items="metalness,specular" defines="items" group="Default"/>
	<state name="deferred" title="Deferred Buffers" group="Default">1</state>
	<state name="multiple_environment_probes" transparent="2" defines="name" group="Default">0</state>
</base_material>

A name of the node.

Available values:

• object_dynamic - a dynamic object
• object_mesh_static - a static mesh
• object_mesh_cluster - a mesh cluster
• object_mesh_clutter - a mesh clutter
• object_mesh_skinned - a skinned mesh
• object_mesh_dynamic - a dynamic mesh
• object_terrain - a terrain object
• object_terrain_global - a global terrain object
• object_grass - a grass object
• object_particles - particles
• object_billboards - billboards
• object_volume_box - a volume box
• object_volume_sphere - a volume sphere
• object_volume_omni - a volume omni object
• object_volume_proj - a volume projected object
• object_gui - a GUI object
• object_gui_mesh - a GUI mesh
• object_water_global - a global water object
• object_water_mesh - a water mesh
• object_sky - a sky object
• object_clouds - a clouds object
• object_extern - an external object
• object_text - a text object
• decal_proj - a projected decal
• decal_ortho - an orthograhic decal
• decal_mesh - a mesh decal

Name of the state.

Below are some of the values available:

• terrain_lerp - Replace material's albedo texture by the projected albedo texture of the ObjectTerrainGlobal to ensure smooth blending with the terrain. Used in the mesh_base material.
• use_taa - Enable Temporal Anti-Aliasing for the post material. Enabling this state has an impact on performance, as TAA in this case is applied twice (stage of the rendering sequence plus for the post material).

A flag indicating whether the state is hidden in the Materials Hierarchy

A type of the the state value.

Available values:

• toggle - a switch that enables/disables the state
• switch - a multiple values switch
• int - an integer value

A set of available items for a multiple values switch.

The attribute that specifies names of definitions that will be passed to the shader:

name#

<state name="vertex_color" defines="name"/>

items#

<state name="workflow" items="metalness,specular" defines="items"/>

name_items#

<state name="opacity_map" transparent="1,2" items="main,normal" defines="name_items"/>

The attribute that specifies passes to which the definitions will be passed.

all#

deferred#

forward#

depth_pre_pass#

auxiliary#

refraction#

velocity#

ambient#

emission#

light_omni#

light_proj#

light_world#

light_environment_probe#

light_voxel_probe#

light_all#

shadow#

transparent#

wireframe#

visualizer_solid#

reflection#

transparent_blur#

post#

object_post#

Custom Pass#

A state title that will be displayed in the editor.

A tooltip for a state. The tooltip will be displayed in the editor when the state is pointed with the mouse.

A group which a state belongs to. The attribute can be used instead the group element.

A type of the widget reqiured to set a state value.

A flag indicating if the state is internal (i.e. cannot be changed via UnigineEditor but used by internal logic). The child materials don't inherit internal states, so callbacks on these states aren't fired for them.

Available values:

• 0 - not internal (by default)
• 1 - internal

A state can have a condition specified as an attribute. For example, the following state will be displayed when the transparent option is set to Opaque or Alpha test and the Parallax state is enabled:

<state name="parallax_shadow" parallax="1" transparent="0,1"/>

For example, if you want to specify the deferred pass, enabled by default, type:

<state name="deferred" type="switch" items="none,default">1</state>

Texture name.

A pass during which a texture will be rendered.

Available values:

• wireframe - the wireframe pass
• visualizer_solid - the visualizer solid pass
• deferred - the deferred pass
• auxiliary - the auxiliary pass
• emission - the emission pass
• refraction - the refraction pass
• reflection - the reflection pass
• transparent_blur - the transparent blur pass
• ambient - the ambient pass
• light_environment_probe - the environment probe pass
• light_omni - the omni-directional light pass
• light_proj - the projected light pass
• light_world - the world light pass
• light_all - the environment probe, omni-directional light, projected light, world light passes
• depth_pre_pass - the native depth pre-pass
• shadow - the shadows pass
• post - the post-process pass
• object_post - the object post-process pass
• forward - the environment probe, omni-directional light, projected light, world light and ambient passes
• transparent - the forward, refraction, transparent blur passes

A type of the texture.

Available values:

• image - a standard texture image (by default).
• gbuffer_albedo - a texture that uses the G-buffer to store albedo values.
• gbuffer_shading - a texture that uses the G-buffer to store shading data.
• gbuffer_normal - a texture that uses the G-buffer to store normal values.
• gbuffer_velocity - a texture that uses the G-buffer to store velocity values.
• gbuffer_material_mask - a texture that uses the G-buffer to store material mask data.
• gbuffer_lightmap - a texture that uses the G-buffer to store lightmap values.
• gbuffer_geodetic_flat_position - a texture that uses the G-buffer to store flat plane coordinates.
• auxiliary - an auxiliary texture that is used for different post effects (an auxiliary pass).
• refraction - a texture that stores refraction data.
• transparent_blur - a 1-channel R16F mask that stores intensity of blurring for transparent materials. The mask specifies where to blur the material.
• lights - a 2D array texture of the RG11B10F format that stores diffuse light in the first layer (RGB) and specular light in the second layer (RGB).
• environment_probes - a 2D array texture of the RGBA16F format that stores reflections in the first layer (RGBA) and ambient lights in the second layer (RGBA).
• bent_normal - an RG11B10F texture that stores bent normals (RGB) used for smooth ambient lighting.
• ssao - a texture that stores SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion) data.
• ssgi - a texture that stores SSGI (Screen Space Global Illumination) data.
• ssr - a texture that stores SSR (Screen Space Reflections) data.
• ssr_depth - a texture that stores SSR (Screen Space Reflections) depth data.
• dof_mask - a texture that stores a DoF (Depth of Field) mask.
• auto_exposure - an RG16F texture that stores intensity of the exposure (R) and luminance (G).
• screen_color - a texture that stores screen color data and can be used for post effects.
• screen_color_old - a texture that stores Color Old (previous frame) data.
• screen_color_old_reprojection - a texture that stores Color Old (previous frame) Reprojection data.
• normal_unpack - a texture that stores unpacked normals. Available for the following post-effects: SSR, SSGI, SSRTGI, Shadows screen space.
• current_depth - a texture that stores current depth data for all geometry on the scene.
• opacity_depth - a texture that stores depth data for opacity geometry and can be used for soft particles and volumetrics.
• linear_depth - a texture that stores linear depth data.
• opacity_screen - a texture that stores the deferred composite and emission data.
• light_image - a texture storing the light values provided by projected light sources.
• light_depth - a texture storing depth values (used to render shadows).
• transparent_environment_probes - a texture that stores environment probes rendered on transparent objects. Available only when Multiple environment probes are enabled.
• reflection_2d - a texture storing reflection values (used to render 2D reflections).
• reflection_cube - a texture storing reflection values (used to render cube-mapped reflections).
• scattering_sky_lut - a texture that stores sky scattering LUT data.
• scattering_ground_lut - a texture that stores ground scattering LUT data.
• wbuffer_constant_id - a constant texture, R32U. A texture of this type stores the ID value of the water mesh which is used to load the corresponding textures and parameters for it.
• wbuffer_diffuse - a diffuse texture. The diffuse color of the water is black, and diffuse texture is necessary for decals, that will be displayed over the water surface
• wbuffer_normal - a normal texture stores normal data for lighting, and alpha channel stores mesh transparency values (it can be used for soft intersections with water geometry)
• wbuffer_water - a water texture, RG8. It is used to create the procedural foam mask. The mask shows where the foam will be depicted
• wbuffer_wu_mask - an underwater mask texture, RGB8. The underwater mask is used only for Global water, since water mesh doesn't have an underwater mode
• wbuffer_ss_environment - an RGBA16 underwater fog texture that stores water bottom coloring values (RGB) and fog transparency (A).
• clouds_screen - an RGBA16F texture into which clouds are rendered.
• clouds_static_coverage - a texture that stores clouds static coverage data.
• clouds_dynamic_coverage - a texture that stores clouds dynamic coverage data.
• field_height_array - a heightmap texture that is used to create an additional height displacement for water surface.
• field_shoreline_array - a field shoreline texture.
• decal_depth - a texture that stores depth data for decals.
• decal_albedo - a texture that stores albedo color data for decals.
• decal_normal - a texture that stores normal data for decals.
• decal_shading -a texture that stores shading data for decals.
• procedural - a procedurally generated texture.
• filter - a filtering texture.

A number of the Texture Mapping Unit (slot) to be used for the texture. The unit specifies a slot of a shader, to which the texture will be passed. The maximum available number of units is 32, the first 16 units supports filtering. If the unit is greater or equal 16, no filtering will be used for the texture.

A texture format.

Available values:

• srgb - a standard RGB color space format.
• signed - a signed normalized format.
• integer - an integer normalized format.

A texture wrapping methods.

Available values:

• clamp - a texture is clamped along all axes
• clamp_x - a texture is clamped along X-axis
• clamp_y - a texture is clamped along Y-axis
• clamp_z - a texture is clamped along Z-axis
• border - a texture is bordered along all axes
• border_x - a texture is bordered along X-axis
• border_y - a texture is bordered along Y-axis
• border_z - a texture is bordered along Z-axis
• repeat - no wrap, a texture is tiled along all axes.

A flag, indicating if the anisotropy for the texture is enabled.

Available values:

• 0  -  disabled (by default)
• 1  -  enabled

A type of the texture filtering.

Available values:

• point   - point filtering (when enablled, disables anisotropy filtering)  
• linear   - linear filtering  
• bilinear   - bilinear filtering  

A texture title that will be displayed in the editor.

A group which a texture belongs to. The attribute is optional: you can use the group element instead.

A type of the widget reqiured to set a parameter.

A tooltip for a texture. The tooltip will be displayed in the editor when the texture field is pointed with the mouse.

A flag indicating whether the texture is displayed in UnigineEditor.

A shader type to which the texture is binded to.

Available values:

• all - a texture should be bound to all shaders.
• fragment - a texture should be bound to fragment shaders only (by default).

A list of post-process materials to be used.

A texture can have a condition specified as an attribute. For example, the following texture will be displayed when the transparent option is set to Opaque or Alpha test and the Parallax state is enabled:

<texture name="parallax"	parallax="1" transparent="0,1">core/textures/common/red.dds</texture>

Name of the parameter.

A parameter title that will be displayed in the UnigineEditor.

A tooltip for a parameter. The tooltip will be displayed in the UnigineEditor when the parameter field is pointed with the mouse.

A group which a parameter belongs to. The attribute is optional: you can use the group element instead.

A type of the parameter, specifying what type of value the parameter accepts.

Available values:

• color - accepts only a color value (a quad of floats corresponding to RGBA color components).
• slider - accepts float values only from a continuous range of allowed values.
• expression - accepts expressions (scripts). The expression is executed each frame.
  Notice

  The expression type should be specified for a mask parameter (e.g. material mask). If you specify an expession except the mask, the mask will always be 0.
• combiner - combines different parameters so the correct value will be passed to the shader. For example, first parameter is vec4 and second is slider. The combiner will combine a vec4 value out of the specified two values (the fourth component of the first parameter will be discarded and the slider value will be used instead).

For the parameter of the combiner type the names of the combined parameters are used as attributes that specify combiner masks. Available values:

• XYZW - all values of the parameter are taken into account when combining with the other parameters.
• XYZ - the 4th component of the parameter isn't taken into account.
• X - only the 1st component of the parameter is taken into account.
• Y - only th 2nd component of the parameter is taken into account.
• Z - only the 3rd component of the parameter is taken into account.
• W - only th 4th component of the parameter is taken into account.

A pass during which a parameter will be used.

Available values:

• wireframe - the wireframe pass
• visualizer_solid - the visualizer solid pass
• deferred - the deferred pass
• auxiliary - the auxiliary pass
• emission - the emission pass
• refraction - the refraction pass
• reflection - the reflection pass
• transparent_blur - the transparent blur pass
• ambient - the ambient pass
• light_environment_probe - the environment probe pass
• light_voxel_probe - the voxel probe pass
• light_omni - the omni-directional light pass
• light_proj - the projected light pass
• light_world - the world light pass
• light_all - the environment probe, omni-directional light, projected light, world light passes
• depth_pre_pass - the native depth pre-pass
• shadow - the shadows pass
• post - the post-process pass
• object_post - the object post-process pass
• forward - the environment probe, omni-directional light, projected light, world light and ambient passes
• transparent - the forward, refraction, transparent blur passes
• custom_pass_name - name of a custom rendering pass. Up to 32 custom passes are supported.

A flag indicating if the parameter will be exported to the shader.

Available values:

• 0 - parameter is not exported
• 1 - parameter is exported (by default)

A flag indicating if the parameter is internal (i.e. cannot be changed via UnigineEditor but used by internal logic).

Available values:

• 0 - not internal (by default)
• 1 - internal

A flag indicating if the parameter is hidden in UnigineEditor.

Available values:

• 0 - not hidden(by default)
• 1 - hidden

Minimum and maximum available values of the parameter.

A number of deferred units to be used.

A name of a shader to which the parameter value is passed. If the prefix or parameters_prefix attribute is specified, it will be used as a prefix for the shader name.

A prefix for a name of a shader to which the parameter value is passed.

A flags attribute allows you to specify additional conditions for the parameters of the slider type.

Available values:

• expand - indicates that the specified maximum and minimum values of the parameter can be exceeded.
• max_expand - indicates that the specified maximum value of the parameter can be increased
• min_expand - indicates that the specified maximum value of the parameter can be decreased

A type of the widget reqiured to set a parameter value.

Available values:

• mask24 - a widget that allows specifying a 24-bit mask
• mask32 - a widget that allows specifying a 32-bit mask
• uv - a widget that allows specifying a UV coordinates
• vec - a widget that allows specifying vector elements

A parameter can have a condition specified as an attribute. For example, the following parameter will be displayed when the Auxiliary state is enabled:

<parameter name="auxiliary_color" auxiliary="1"></parameter>

An example of different types of parameters declaration:

<parameter name="expression_parameter" type="expression" shared="1">vec4(1.0f,1.0f,0.0f,0.0f)</parameter>
<parameter name="slider_parameter" type="slider" shared="1" min="0.0" max="4.0" flags="max_expand">1.0</parameter>
<parameter name="color_parameter" type="color" shared="1">1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0</parameter>
<parameter name="constant_parameter" type="constant" shared="1">0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0</parameter>

Name of the expression. The name must be unique as it is used when executing the expression via the runExpression() function of the Material class.

Path to the *.usc file containing expression code written in UnigineScript.

An example of expression declaration:

<!--...-->
<expression name="expr_name" path="expression.usc"/>

An example of expression code:

// typical most frequently used parameters passed to the expression when it is called.
int in_width;
int in_height;
int in_depth;
Material in_material;
// If you need extra parameters, you should set them via Material::setParameter*("param_name", value) before calling Material::runExpression()
// then you can access them in the expression via in_material.getParameter*("param_name")

// ...

// get a temporary texture
Texture texture = engine.render.getTemporaryTexture(in_width, in_height);

// modify the temporary texture

// set the modified texture as albedo texture of the material
in_material->setTexture("albedo", texture);

A pass for the shader to be applied.

Available values:

• wireframe - the wireframe pass
• visualizer_solid - the visualizer solid pass
• deferred - the deferred pass
• auxiliary - the auxiliary pass
• emission - the emssion pass
• refraction - the refraction pass
• reflection - the reflection pass
• transparent_blur - the transparent blur pass
• ambient - the ambient pass
• light_environment_probe - the environment probe light pass
• light_voxel_probe - the voxel probe light pass
• light_omni - the omni-directional light pass
• light_proj - the projected light pass
• light_world - the world light pass
• depth_pre_pass - the native depth pre-pass
• shadow - the shadows pass
• post - the post-process pass
• object_post - the object post-process pass
• custom_pass_name - name of a custom rendering pass. Up to 32 custom passes are supported.

An object or a decal to which a shader will be applied.

Available values:

• object_dynamic - a dynamic object
• object_mesh_static - a static mesh
• object_mesh_cluster - a mesh cluster
• object_mesh_clutter - a mesh clutter
• object_mesh_skinned - a skinned mesh
• object_mesh_dynamic - a dynamic mesh
• object_terrain - a terrain object
• object_terrain_global - a global terrain object
• object_grass - a grass object
• object_particles - particles
• object_billboards - billboards
• object_volume_box - a volume box
• object_volume_sphere - a volume sphere
• object_volume_omni - a volume omni object
• object_volume_proj - a volume projected object
• object_gui - a GUI object
• object_gui_mesh - a GUI mesh
• object_water_global - a global water object
• object_water_mesh - a water mesh
• object_sky - a sky object
• object_clouds - a clouds object
• object_extern - an external object
• object_text - a text object
• decal_proj - a projected decal
• decal_ortho - an orthograhic decal
• decal_mesh - a mesh decal

A list of the shader definitions to be used.

Options Definitions

States Definitions

A path to a *.vert vertex shader to be used. If the vertex shader isn't specified, the default core/shaders/common/empty.vert shader will be used.

A path to a *.cont control shader (also known as hull) to be used.

A path to *.eval evaliation shader (also known as domain) to be used.

A path to a *.geom geometry shader to be used.

A path to a *.frag fragment shader to be used.

A path to a *.comp compute shader to be used.

A shader can have a condition specified as an attribute. For example, the following shader will be applied when the Auxiliary state is enabled:

<shader pass="auxiliary" node="object_mesh_static"
		auxiliary="1"
		defines="BASE_AUXILIARY"
		two_sided_defines=",TWO_SIDED"
		vertex="core/shaders/mesh/auxiliary/auxiliary.shader"
		fragment="core/shaders/mesh/auxiliary/auxiliary.shader"/>

An example of the ambient pass shader, applied to the dynamic mesh:

<shader pass="ambient" node="object_mesh_dynamic"
	vertex="shaders/vertex.shader"
	geometry="shaders/geometry.shader"
	fragment="shaders/fragment.shader"/>

A node to be binded.

Available values:

• object_dynamic - a dynamic object
• object_mesh_static - a static mesh
• object_mesh_cluster - a mesh cluster
• object_mesh_clutter - a mesh clutter
• object_mesh_skinned - a skinned mesh
• object_mesh_dynamic - a dynamic mesh
• object_terrain - a terrain object
• object_terrain_global - a global terrain object
• object_grass - a grass object
• object_particles - particles
• object_billboards - billboards
• object_volume_box - a volume box
• object_volume_sphere - a volume sphere
• object_volume_omni - a volume omni object
• object_volume_proj - a volume projected object
• object_gui - a GUI object
• object_gui_mesh - a GUI mesh
• object_water_global - a global water object
• object_water_mesh - a water mesh
• object_sky - a sky object
• object_clouds - a clouds object
• object_extern - an external object
• object_text - a text object
• decal_proj - a projected decal
• decal_ortho - an orthograhic decal
• decal_mesh - a mesh decal

A node to bind.

Available values are the same as for node attribute.

A list of the definitions to be used if the material is binded.

An example of binding a mesh skinned object to a mesh object (with the mesh skinned definition):

<bind object="mesh_skinned" to="mesh" defines="MESH_SKINNED"></bind>