Notch Notch Manual 0.9.23
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Alpha Blend (Transparent) Material

Alpha Blend (Transparent) Material

Add a basic transparent material using a alpha blending.

image

Parameters

These properties control the core behaviours of the material using Physically Based Rendering (PBR) properties from a A Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution function. Changing the properties below can make a material appear more reflective, more dirty, or add more detail to the material surface. By using textures (either through the relevant inputs, or in the texture section), each of these properties can be modulated over a surface, for more complex material effects.

ParameterDetails
ColourThe colour of the material.
BrightnessHow much light the object absorbs and doesn’t reflect back into the scene.
Specular ColourThe colour of specular light reflected from the material.
Specular IntensityIntensity of the specular reflections
SpecularityHow much specular light is reflected from the object.
Specular AnisotrophyChange the shape of the specular highlight.
EmissivenessHow much of a glow is emitted around the object. Requires “high dynamic range” to be turned on in the root.
MetallicnessChange how metallic the object looks.
RoughnessHow rough the surface of the material is.
Baked Diffuse IntensityIntensity of the texture supplied via the Diffuse channel - typically used for baked light maps.
Use Baked Diffuse Map As Ambient OcclusionSets Diffuse Map to become an ambient occlusion map
Fresnel Diffuse AmountThe brightness of the fresnel on the diffuse surface

These properties control how transparent the material is. Transparency isnt always supported with some of the more advanced lighting effects, so some experimentation may be needed.

ParameterDetails
AlphaChange the alpha value of the material.
Alpha ModeChange how the alpha image affects the material.
  • Opaque : The material is rendered solid, completely occluding any pixels behind it in the view.
  • Alpha To Coverage : The material is rendered solid, but alpha values are converted into a dither pattern to allow textured alphas to shape the output.
  • Alpha Blend : The material is rendered transparent and the Blend Mode is used to control blending.
Blend ModeChange how the material once added to an object blends with the scene. Only functions with Alpha Mode for details.
Alpha Sort BiasBiases the alpha sorting of the objects using this material, if they are transparent, so they are drawn earlier or later in the sorting order.

These properties control a rim lighting effect, a Light which sits just behind the subject and adds a wrapping of liht around the mesh edges.

ParameterDetails
Rim Lighting EnabledSimulates Rim Lighting on the material with respect to the camera.
Rim Lighting Use Material ColourUse the Materials Colour instead of the Rim Lighting Colour.
Rim Lighting ColourSelect a colour to use for Rim Lighting. Overwritten by Material Colour with Use Material Colour Enabled.
Rim Lighting IntensityHow strong the Rim Lighting is.
Rim Lighting FalloffHow far the falloff for the Rim Lighting reaches.

These properties control the rendering settings for the material.

ParameterDetails
LitToggle whether the material can be lit by lights in the scene.
Casts ShadowsToggle whether the objects the material is applied to casts shadows.
Environment MappingToggle whether Environment Map reflections will be applied to this material.
Back Face Cull ModeChanges which directions the face will be visible in.
  • Double Sided : Both sides of the material will be rendered to the surface.
  • Show Front Faces : Only the front side aligned with the normal will be rendered.
  • Show Back Faces : Only the back side opposite to the normal will be rendered.
Flip PolygonsToggles whether the polygons are flipped on the material
WireframeToggles whether the polygons are wireframe on the material
Flat Shade ColoursToggles whether the material colours are flat shaded

Thes properties comntrol how the surface of the material is displaced at rendereing, using normal maps, heightmaps, or both.

ParameterDetails
Normal SmoothnessChange how much smoothing is done to the edges of the object.
Smoothing AngleSets the smoothing angle of the mesh faces. The higher the smoother the result.
Normal Map StrengthChange how strong the normal map effect is. Only functions if a normal map is selected in the “normal map” attribute, and the normal map mode is set to “normal mapping”.
Normal Map ModeChange how the normal map affects the material.
Normal Map - Invert Normal XInvert the normal map along the X axis.
Normal Map - Invert Normal YInvert the normal map along the Y axis.
Normal Map - Invert Normal ZInvert the normal map along the Z axis.
DisplacementHow Much the displacement map affects the object.
Displacement OffsetOffset displacement amount for the displacement maps.
Parallax AmountEnables Parallax Occlusion Mapping, and sets how much the material is displaced by it.
Displacement - Use Polygons UVsUses the Polygon UV’s to fix seams where the UV Map can wrap.
Displacement - Fix Tessellation SeamsCan fix tessellation seams where displacement maps are sampled per vertex, and can wrap across polygons.

These properties allow textures to modulate the surfaces. Textures connected to the maaterials relevant input properties will overwrite these textures.

ParameterDetails
Colour TextureSelect a source image to add a colour texture to the material.
Normal MapSelect a source image to add a normal map to the material.
Specular MapSelect a source image to add a specula map to the material.
Diffuse MapSelect a source image to add a diffuse map to the material.
Displacement MapSelect an image to displace the mesh based on the luminescence values of the image. Can be used with the Subdivision Levels node.
Roughness MapSelect an image to control how rough different areas of the material are, based on luminance.
Metallicness MapSelect an image to control how metallic different areas of the material are.
Alpha MapSelect an image to control the alpha values of different areas of the material, based on luminance.
Emissiveness MapSelect a source image to control how emissive an object is, based on luminance.

These properties control how the material applies to the mesh UVs.

ParameterDetails
UV Scale XScale the UV texture along the X axis.
UV Scale YScale the UV texture along the Y axis.
UV Offset XOffset the UV texture along the X axis.
UV Offset YOffset the UV texture along the Y axis.
Diffuse UV Scale XScale the Diffuse UV texture along the X axis.
Diffuse UV Scale YScale the Diffuse UV texture along the Y axis.
Diffuse UV Offset XOffset the Diffuse UV texture along the X axis.
Diffuse UV Offset YOffset the Diffuse UV texture along the Y axis.
Texture Filter ModeControls how textures used by the material are filtered - through point sampling, linear filtering or anisotropic filtering.
Texture Wrap Mode UControls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the U value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Texture Wrap Mode VControls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the V value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Diffuse Texture Filter ModeControls how textures used by the material are filtered - through point sampling, linear filtering or anisotropic filtering.
Diffuse Texture Wrap Mode UControls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the U value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Diffuse Texture Wrap Mode VControls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the V value range exceeds 0 to 1.
UV Remap FilteringEnables filtering for remapping UV’s. Only functions with eligible textures.
Texture Mip BiasBias the distance at which Mip Maps are swapped for original textures.

These properties allow you to control how vertex colours are applied to meshes, and to other parts of the PBR pipeline.

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