Uber Material

Uber Material

The Uber material is a node-based asset material. First off, this means that the material is calculated differently from standard or physical materials – it’s controlled by Nodes. Node Material Assets have the characteristic that they are often not visible in the Node that they affect or have to be modified directly to edit the material. The configuration can therefore often be done via the Attribute Manager or even via the Material Editor without having to open the Node Editor.

This is due to the fact that the Node Material Assets as a rule are conceived for displaying a specific effect or a specific surface properties. This also applies to the Uber material, which, in conjunction with Material Nodes, simulates many properties of the familiar physical and standard materials. The Uber material is very well suited for getting familiar with the working principles of the Node Materials without having to do without the trusted material channels and their functions. Other than with the standard or physical materials, each new Material Node can be combined with the Uber material.

The Uber material can be edited in the Node Editor but you can also double-click on the preview images in the Material Manager and open the Material Editor, or you can edit the properties of a selected Uber material in the Attribute Manager.

Separate Connector settings can be used to link individual Uber material channels with Material Nodes or textures. This is probably the most obvious difference between the Uber material and the standard material, which does not offer such a link option.

To create a link, click on a Connector in the Material Editor or Attribute Manager and select Load Texture to load a new bitmap, Textures to link to a texture that’s already linked elsewhere, or Connect Node to link to the Material Node listed there.

Basic tab in the Attribute Manager

When a Uber material is selected, several settings will be made available in the Attribute Manager’s Basic tab (don’t mix this up with the tag of the same name when a material is selected in the Node Editor):

In the left column of the Material Editor or in the Attribute Manager’s Basic tab you will find the available material channels for the Uber material, which orient themselves in large part to the channels of a standard or physical material. Enabling the options next to the material channels will activate the respective material’s properties. Furthermore, you can edit the material’s Name and its assignment to a Layer as usual.

A button blow the material channel lets you open the Node Editor to directly access the Material Nodes.