Physical Material

The Physical Material represents the most advanced and highest quality shading model available in PlayCanvas. We recommend you use the Physical shading model.

Offset & Tiling

Property	Description
Apply to all Maps	Uncheck this to apply offset and tiling values to individual maps.
Offset	The offset in U and V to apply to the first UV channel referenced by maps in this material.
Tiling	The scale in U and V to apply to the first UV channel referenced by maps in this material.

Ambient

Ambient properties determine how the material appears in ambient light.

Property	Description
Tint	Check this to multiply the scene's global ambient color with a material specific color.
Color	The tint color to multiply the scene's global ambient color.
AO Texture	An ambient occlusion map containing pre-baked ambient occlusion.

Diffuse

Diffuse properties define the how a material reflects diffuse light emitted by dynamic light sources in the scene.

Property	Description
Texture	The diffuse map that specifies the per-pixel diffuse material color. If no diffuse map is set, the diffuse color is used instead.
Tint	Check this to modulate the material's diffuse map with a material specific diffuse color.
Color	If no diffuse map is set, this is the diffuse color of the material. If a diffuse map is set and tint is enabled, this color modulates the material's diffuse map.

Specular

Specular properties defines the color of the specular highlights. i.e. the shininess

Property	Description
Use Metalness	Toggle between specular and metalness workflow.
Specular Map	The specular map that specifies the per-pixel specular color. If no specular map is set, the specular color is used instead.
Tint	Check this to modulate the material's specular map with a material specific specular color.
Color	If no specular map is set, this is the specular color of the material. If a specular map is set and tint is enabled, this color modulates the material's specular map.
Metalness Map	[Only when using metalness] This map specifies per-pixel metalness values. A value of 1 is metal and a value of 0 is non-metal.
Gloss Map	The gloss map that specifies a per-pixel shininess value. The gloss map is modulated by the shininess property.
Glossiness	A value determining the smoothness of a surface. For smaller shininess values, a surface is rougher and specular highlights will be broader. For larger shininess values, a surface is smoother and will exhibit more concentrated specular highlights (as the surface is polished and shiny).

Emissive

Emissive properties control how the material emits light (as opposed to reflecting light).

Property	Description
Texture	The emissive map that specifies the per-pixel emissive color. If no emissive map is set, the emissive color is used instead.
Tint	Check this to modulate the material's emissive map with a material specific emissive color.
Color	If no emissive map is set, this is the emissive color of the material. If an emissive map is set and tint is enabled, this color modulates the material's emissive map.
Intensity	A multiplier for emissive color that can achieve overbright effects for exceptionally bright emissive materials.

Opacity

Opacity sets the transparency level.

Property	Description
Texture	The opacity map that specifies the per-pixel opacity. The opacity map is modulated by the 'Amount' property.
Intensity	The opacity of the material. This is a value between 0 (completely transparent) and 1 (completely opaque. It defaults to 1.

Normals

Use this to specify normal maps (these determine bumpiness - note you have to use normal maps in PlayCanvas, not height maps).

Property	Description
Bumpiness	The strength of the applied normal map. This is a value between 0 (the normal map has no effect) and 2 (the effect of the normal map is exaggerated). It defaults to 1.
Texture	The normal map that specifies the per-pixel surface normals. The normal map is modulated by the 'Bumpiness' property.

Parallax

A parallax map gives further realism to a normal map by giving the illusion of depth to a surface. Note that parallax options are only enabled if you have set a normal map on the material.

Property	Description
Height Map	The height map that specifies the per-pixel strength of the parallax effect. White is full height and black is zero height.
Strength	The strength of a parallax effect (a value between 0 and 2, defaulting to 1).

Environment

Environment properties determine how a material reflects the environment.

Property	Description
Sphere Map	A sphere map texture asset that approximates environment reflection. If a sphere map is set, the Cube Map property will be hidden (since these properties are mutually exclusive).
Cube Map	A cube map texture asset that approximates environment reflection (with greater accuracy than is possible with a sphere map). If a cube map is set, the Sphere Map property will be hidden (since these properties are mutually exclusive).
Reflectivity	A factor to determine what portion of light is reflected from the material. This value defaults to 1 (full reflectivity).
Refraction	A factor to determine what portion of light passes through the material.
Index of Refraction	Determines the amount of distortion of light passing through the material.

Light Map

Light maps contain pre-baked diffuse lighting. Using light maps is considered an optimization in that runtime dynamic lighting calculations can be pre-calculated.

Property	Description
Texture	The lightmap texture that contains pre-baked diffuse lighting. The lightmap requires the material to be applied to a mesh that has two UV sets. The lightmap uses the second set of UVs.

Other Render States

Other Render States gives additional controls over how a mesh is rendered with the specified material.

Property	Description
Depth Test	If checked, when a mesh with the material is rendered, a per pixel check is performed to determine if the pixel passes the engine's depth test. By default, the test is that the pixel must have a z depth less than or equal to whatever is already in the depth buffer. In other words, the mesh is only visible if nothing is in front of it. If unchecked, the mesh is rendered regardless of what is already in the depth buffer. Defaults to on.
Depth Write	If checked, when a mesh with the material is rendered, its depth information is written to the depth buffer. This ensures that when subsequent meshes are rendered, they can be successfully depth tested against meshes rendered with this material. Defaults to on.
Cull	Options are: None: Both front faces and back faces are rendered. Front Faces: front faces are rendered and back faces are not. Back Faces: back faces are rendered and front faces are not. This is the default. PlayCanvas dictates that a counter-clockwise vertex winding specifies a front face triangle. Note that backface culling is often good for performance because backface pixels are often overwritten (for convex meshes) which can result in redundant filling of pixels.
Blend Type	Options are: None: The mesh is opaque. This is the default. Normal: The mesh is transparent, like stained glass. Additive: The mesh color is added to whatever has already been rendered to the frame buffer. Pre-multiply: Like 'Normal' blending except it is assumed that the color of the mesh being rendered with this material has already been modulated by its alpha value. Multiply: When rendered, the mesh color is multiplied by whatever has already been rendered to the frame buffer.
Shadow Sampling	Options are: Hard PCF 3x3