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- Load...: opens a file browser dialog and loads material description from the specified .mxm file. The SHOP node is renamed to the name of the loaded material.
- Save...: saves the material to an MXM file.
- Edit: opens the Material Editor (MXED) with the current material which provides a user-friendly interface to edit the material. After the material is saved and the editor is closed, the plug-in updates the material node in Houdini.
- Preview: opens MXED to calculate preview of the material by the current settings. The preview image is displayed in MPlay.
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The BSDF properties tab contains the following parameters.
- Weight: specifies blending weight of the BSDF component.
- Texture: greyscale map to specify visibility of the BSDF component.
- Use IOR: allows users to set the value of the index of refraction (Nd) manually.
- IOR File: specifies an .ior file which provides Maxwell Render with the exact index or refraction for each wavelength of a material. These materials have the advantage of being extremely realistic, but complex IOR data requires more complex mathematical functions.
- Reflectance (0°): specifies the light reflected by the material, when the object is seen at 0° degrees (frontal view), in other words the main color of the material. Also a texture can be specified as the reflectance. The reflectance color describes the amount of light the object reflects back, but not how that light is reflected back (in a diffuse way, or a specular way for shiny objects). This is instead controlled by the Roughness parameter.
- Reflectance (90°): specifies the light reflected by the material when the object is seen at 90° degrees (glancing angle), in other words the Fresnel color. Also a texture can be specified.
- Transmittance: specifies the color of the light when it passes through a transparent material.
- Attenuation Distance: specifies the distance how far the light can move through an object before losing half its energy. For example, if you have a 2cm thick glass window and you set the attenuation distance to 2cm, the light shining through the glass on the other side will be half as bright.
- Install troubleshootingNd: specifies the overall reflectivity of the object (IOR: index of refraction). With transparent materials the Nd also controls the amount of refraction.
- Force Fresnel: the “Fresnel effect” states that the strength of reflections on a surface is dependent on the viewing angle. When Force Fresnel is checked, the reflectance between 0° and 90° (the Fresnel curve) is maintained according to the Nd, and only the hue of a given reflectance color is taken in consideration. When Force Fresnel is unchecked the reflectance value of a surface is derived both from the Nd and the luminance of the reflectance 0° color.
- K (extinction coefficient): specifies the amount of absorption loss when an electromagnetic wave propagates through a material. This coefficient plays role in the calculation of the refraction at a particular wavelength.
- Abbe: specifies the amount of dispersion. Dispersion is the effect seen when the light is split up into different wavelengths of light (for example when passes through a prism). The higher the Abbe number, the less dispersion will be visible in the render. An Abbe number higher than 60-70 will render as if dispersion was not activated.
- Use R2: gives controls over the falloff between the 0° and the 90° color which is generally controlled by the Nd and roughness parameters. The first parameter of R2 controls the falloff angle between the 0° and 90° colors. The second parameter controls how much influence the roughness has.
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The Surface properties tab contains the following parameters.
- Roughness Value: controls the reflection of the light. Roughness allows users to add tiny imperfections and miniscule details on a surface to make it reflect light in a more diffuse way. 0 means perfectly smooth surface, while 100 means pure diffuse surface. A grayscale texture can be specified where brighter values create a higher roughness.
- Bump: allows users to simulate grooves and imperfections on a surface (similar to Roughness), but at a much larger scale. A greyscale texture can be specified where brighter values create bumps on the surface and darker values create indents.
- Normal map: specifies an angle, or the direction of the bumps while bump map can simulate only the up / down direction of the grooves. A Normal map gives the impression of very strong bumps on a surface. An RGB texture can be specified where each channel represents an angle and the strength for the bump.
- Anisotropy: controls the directional sensibility of the surface reflection. A grayscale texture can be specified where brighter values specify higher anisotropy.
- Angle: specifies the main direction of the reflected light. A grayscale texture can be specified where brighter values specify larger angles.
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SSS is a crucial component that allows users to accurately simulate many kinds of materials including plastics, marble, milk, skin etc.
- Scattering Color: specifies the reflectance of inner particles causing subsurface scattering. The incoming light will be reflected / scattered in this color.
- Coefficient: specifies the amount of particles inside the medium. 0 means no subsurface scattering. The higher the coefficient value, the more opaque / less translucent the medium is.
- Asymmetry: defines the isotropy of scattering. 0 means that light rays will be scattered equally in all directions. A negative value will let the light rays go through resulting in a more translucent look, while a positive value will send the rays backwards resulting in a more solid look.
- Single Sided: enables / disables using virtual thickness instead of the real volume of the object. This mode is useful when simulating thin translucent materials like paper, leaves, and lampshades. A thickness map can be used for more complicated effects.
- Min / Max: specifies the minimum and maximum virtual thickness and are only available when a thickness map is used. The thickness map will be treated as a grayscale map using the given range.
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Only one coating is allowed per BSDF. It’s possible to make a material using just a coating and no BSDF, for example to create a bubble material.
- Enabled: enables / disables visibility of the component.
- Name: name of the Coating component.
- Thickness: specifies the thickness of the coating component. Can be specified by a numerical value or through a weight map. To avoid interference coloring, higher thickness values (such as 1 mm = 1000000 nm) should be used.
- Min / Max: specifies the minimum and maximum value of the thickness used with a thickness map only. The thickness map will be treated as a grayscale map using the given range.
- Use IOR: allows users to set the value of the index of refraction (Nd) manually.
- IOR File: specifies an .ior file which provides Maxwell Render with the exact index or refraction for each wavelength of a material. These materials have the advantage of being extremely realistic, but complex IOR data requires more complex mathematical functions.
- Reflectance (0°): specifies the light reflected by the material, when the object is seen at 0° degrees (frontal view).
- Reflectance (90°): specifies the light reflected by the material when the object is seen at 90° degrees (glancing angle).
- Nd: specifies the overall reflectivity of the object (IOR: index of refraction). With transparent materials the Nd also controls the amount of refraction.
- Force Fresnel: specifies behaviour of the reflectance between 0° and 90° (the Fresnel curve).
- K (extinction coefficient): specifies the amount of absorption loss when an electromagnetic wave propagates through a material. This coefficient plays role in the calculation of the refraction at a particular wavelength.
- Use R2: gives controls over the falloff between the 0° and the 90° color.
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