Material Types

Materials are one of the primary factors for making a scene in LumenRT look good. Using the right texture maps along with the proper material settings can dramatically improve the appearance and increase realism.

There are several facilities available to add material properties to models including inferred materials, derived materials, explicit meta coding, LumneRT material libraries, and LumenRT proxy materials.

The Material Editor appears when you select an imported object in the scene. On this dialog, you can view the current materials being used on that object and change the materials if you wish. Note that the objects and plants included with LumenRT cannot be changed. You can only edit the materials of objects imported into LumenRT.

There are 4 types of materials:

Standard Materials

Always on top - Check if this material is to be always top layer. An image of the material displays. Depending on the type of material displayed, the next fields will vary. Many of the materials will use these fields.

Color Controls

This channel can allows to add texture pattern map to selected material. Invert - Inverts the displayed image. Click again to undo. Rotate Left - Rotates the image left. Rotate Right - Rotates the image right. Flip Vertically - It allows to flip the texture vertically. Flip Horizontally - It allows to flip the texture horizontally. Load - Opens a dialog to select a new image file. Remove - Deletes the material. Use as a Normal Map - If ticks on, the color map will be used as a Normal map/Bump. Brightness - Adjust the brightness of the texture map if present.

Normal/Bump Controls

This channel allows either a normal map or bump map to be loaded. The image displays with the same control icons listed in the Color Controls section displaying to the right. You can adjust the bump gain if needed.

Roughness Controls

This channel controls the surface roughness appearance. Lower roughness values will generate more shine while higher values will make surfaces appear duller. Optionally, you can load in a grayscale map to fine tune surface roughness values.

Metallic Controls

This channel controls the degree to which a material behaves in a metallic fashion which affects properties such as reflections, refractions, and specular effects. Higher values yield a more metallic-like appearance while lower values generate a duller, plastic-like appearance. Optionally, you can load in a grayscale map to fine tune surface metallic values.

Ambient Occlusion

This channel controls the amount of ambient shadowing that occurs in the material. Higher values deliver darker shadows while lower values yield lighter shadows. Optionally, you can load in a grayscale map to fine tune ambient occlusion values.

Displacement

This channel controls the amount of geometric surface distortion. This is like the roughness channel except that the bump appearance is more pronounced. You must load in a grayscale map for the displacement channel to take effect.

Backlighting

This channel controls the amount of light passing through the material. This effect works well for sheer materials like fabric, plastic, and leaves. Optionally, you can load in a grayscale map to fine tune backlighting values.

Luminosity

This channel controls the amount light emitting from the material. This works well for objects such as signs and lit windows. If the Adaptive box is checked, the luminosity effect will also appear during the day – not just at night.

Glass Materials

Material Property controls - All the material property controls for glass materials are identical to standard materials except for the following additions:

Transparency

Transparency - This channel allows sets the amount of transparency ranging from 0% (Opaque) to 100% (Transparent). IOR - Index of refraction specify scatter light when it pass through a transparent material. Blurriness - Blurriness sets the blurriness of transparency. Optionally, you can load in a grayscale map to fine tune blurriness values.

Reflection

This channel allows sets the amount of reflection ranging from 0% (non-reflective) to 100% (mirror). Blurriness sets the blurriness of reflections. Optionally, you can load in a grayscale map to fine tune blurriness values.

Water Materials

Water materials can be applied to any model geometry material. The parameters are as follows: Brightness - Sets the brightness of the water. Water Tint - Sets The primary color of the water. Direction - Controls the direction of the water flow. Agitation - Sets the water roughness. Speed - Sets the wave cycle speed.

Grass Materials

3D Grass materials can be applied to any model geometry material. The parameters are as follows : Height - Sets the grass height. A grayscale map can be used to fine tune this setting. Density - Sets the clump grass density. A grayscale map can be used to fine tune this setting. Decline - Sets the amount of bend for individual fur strands. Color - Sets the overall grass color using a color map.

Grass Primitives

Grass primitives define each type of grass class. Typically, grass materials should contain two or more primitives. Grass primitive types can be either blades or flowers each containing their own color map. The color maps should be transparent .png files. The parameters are as follows: Percentage- Indicates the relatable frequency of the primitive. Type - Either blade or flowers. Curl Width- The size of the primitive curly. Curl power - The strength of the primitive curly. Width - The width of the primitives. Height - The Length of the Primitive Apply overall color - If tick on, the overall color map to mix with the primitive color.

Materials - this section of the dialog shows the materials on the selected object. You can check to lock the material from future changes and indicate whether you want this particular to receive high quality lighting.

A picture of the material is shown with icons to the left for saving the material or opening a dialog to find a different material.

• Scale - Adjust the scale of the material here.
• Type -Select the type of material here. Other than Standard, the Varnished, Metallic, Glass and Water types are Lumen types, enhanced for Lumen processing.