Introduction
In this documentation, we will show you how you can set up materials/shaders inside Aximmetry.
Shader
Before we talk about setting up a shader/material it's important to clarify what a shader/material is. In Aximmetry the name shader and material are interchangeable.
In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene.
Set Importer Options...
As mentioned earlier you can select which objects you would like to import from the following:
- Geometry
- Light
- Cameras
- Materials
Importing Materials is tricky as each rendering engine has a different approach to shaders/materials. Aximmetry tries to set up the materials automatically, but we strongly recommend unchecking the Import materials option and setting up the materials by hand.
To use a different shader than what is automatically imported you should right-click on the model's compound then click on Set Importer Options... menu and turn off the Import Materials option.
Then click OK.
We advise you to do so because the automatic shaders are limited in functions and you will get much better results this way. We can replace these shaders with a proper shader that allows us to use the full potential of the render engine.
When unchecking this option Aximmetry will reimport your model and remove the shaders that are automatically imported:
Your model will have a grid texture applied to it and you can add any Aximmetry shader to them:
Importing a shader
Aximmetry has many shaders you can use, they are found at Projects\Common\Shaders
The most commonly used shaders can be found either in Projects\Common\Shaders\Standard or Projects\Common\Shaders\PBR
Which shader to use
In Aximmetry each shader is named after what unique functions they offer.
For example:
- PBR - These shaders utilize Physically-Based Rendering pipelines.
- Light - The shaders use lightmap for diffuse reflection
- AO - The shader uses AO(Ambient Occlusion) maps
- Sheen - The shader sheen color and env map
- Refract - The shader calculates refraction
- Emiss - The shader is emissive
- Disp - The shader uses a displacement map
- Aniso - The shader can be used for anisotropic materials
- Compl - The shader uses a complete map
- Flat- The shader doesn't use a normal map
- Mirror - The shader can be used with planar reflection
- IBL - Image Based Light, the shader can be used with environment maps
- IBLSS - The shader can be used with environment maps and the Specular Env map is calculated at higher samples.
- Det -The shader uses 2 texture packs and blends between them according to distance from the camera
- Fabric - The opacity of the material changes relative to the view angle
- Fresnel - Fresnel is the percentage of light that a surface reflects at grazing angles. The smaller the angle the more the object reflects
- NOTE: PBR shaders calculate with fresnel by default
- Fresnel_ - Self-illumination brightness and color of the material is relative to the camera angle. A smaller angle means higher brightness
- -Fresnel - Self-illumination brightness and color of the material is relative to the camera angle. a smaller angle means lower brightness
- _Fresnel - Blending between two colors or a color and a texture is dependent on the camera angle.
- _Inv - the fresnel effect is inverted in the shader
What you should do is see what textures and parameters you have used in your modeling/texturing software and look for a shader that allows you to use those in Aximmetry.
Most of our shaders are affected by dynamic lights but there are some exceptions:
- Basic.xshad shader
- Freshnel_*.xshad shaders
- Cut_Basic_Fresnel.xshad shader
- Norm_Refl_Light-Fresnel.xshad shader
Commonly used shaders
[Common]:Shaders\Standard\Basic.xshad
is the most simple shader we have, it is a self-illumination shader no light or shadow affects it. You can use this for emissive objects if you do not want reflection and shadows on them.
- you can change its color, intensity, and opacity
[Common]:Shaders\Lightmap\Norm_Light.xshad
allows you to use a normal map with lightmap. It is affected by lights and shadows. This shader requires a lightmap and dynamic lights to see the objects realistically.
[Common]:Shaders\PBR\PBR_IBL_Norm_Light.xshad
It is our most commonly used shader. It uses PBR textures with lightmap for diffuse, and specular env map for specular highlights.
This shader requires a lightmap plus specular env map, and/or Dynamic lights to be able to see the objects realistically.
In general, we recommend using PBR shaders to get the most realistic results possible.
In this documentation, we will show you how you can use PBR shaders.
Applying the shader to the model
When you find the shader that you wish to use you simply drag and drop it into the flow editor.
As mentioned here each different material has a separate mesh node. You should connect it to the material like so:
I am using [Common]:Shaders\Standard\Flat.xshad to show you how to set up shaders inside Aximmetry.
Adding a texture to the shader
You have 3 different ways to import the texture.
Note that we are only using Flat.xshad shader as an example, the process is the same for all shaders and all of their inputs.
Drop the texture on the pin
You can drag and drop any texture on top of the corresponding input pin:
Select from the shaders' input
Select the shader that you wish to add the texture to then Click on the three dots in the shader's property editor:
And use the file browser to select the desired file.
Connect the texture in the flow editor
Or simply by dropping it into the flow editor and connecting it like this:
You can use any of the methods mentioned above, one thing to keep in mind is that if you wish to make some texture modifications other than changing the attributes you should use the Connect the texture in the flow editor method.
If you do not wish to make any modifications to the texture we suggest using the Drop the texture on the pin method.
In the next documentation, we will talk about PBR shaders.
