The main tab of the Maxwell Material node contains the following global properties. - Load MXM: load the material description from the specified .mxm file. The SHOP node is renamed to the name of the loaded material.
- Reload: updates the parameters from the .mxm file. This button is useful if the .mxm file has changed outside Houdini (for example edited with the Material Editor).
- Save MXM: exports the material to the given .mxm file.
- Show Preview: calls Mxed to calculate preview of the material by the current settings. The preview image is displayed in MPlay.
- Edit in Material Editor: opens the Material Editor (Mxed) with the current parameters which provides a user-friendly interface to edit the material. After the material is saved and the editor is closed, the plug-in reloads the material parameters automatically.
- Dispersion: enables / disables the dispersion calculations. Dispersion is the effect which can be seen when different wavelengths of light are refracted at slightly different angles as they pass through a material. The amount of dispersion can be controlled with the Abbe parameter of the BSDF component.
- Shadow: enables / disables the shadow catcher, used for compositing purposes.
- Matte: enables / disables matte properties for this material.
- Material ID Color: specifies color identifier for the material, useful for compositing.
- Global Bump Mapping: enables using global bump map which will affect the whole material, alongside the bump of each individual BSDF.
- Bump Strength: specifies the strength of the bumps.
- Bump Texture: specifies a bump texture where brighter values will create bumps on the surface and darker values will create indents. A color map can be used as a bump map but only the grayscale information of the map will be used.
- Use Bump Texture As Normal Map: if checked, the given bump texture will be used as a global normal map. A normal map has the advantage specifying an angle, or the direction of the bumps while bump map can simulate only the up / down direction.
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