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  <section id="materials">
<h1>Materials<a class="headerlink" href="#materials" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Materials in Crown are resources with the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.material</span></code> extension. They define
the shading (i.e. the visual appearance) of objects in the scene.</p>
<figure class="align-center" id="id1">
<img alt="../_images/materials.png" src="../_images/materials.png" />
<figcaption>
<p><span class="caption-text">Some materials displayed in the Project Browser.</span><a class="headerlink" href="#id1" title="Permalink to this image">¶</a></p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the technical level, a material binds a shader together with its options
and parameters (uniforms and samplers). For example, the built-in
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">core/units/primitive</span></code> material uses the shader named <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mesh</span></code> and assigns
values appropriate to primitive objects to all uniforms that shader exposes.</p>
<section id="creating-materials">
<h2>Creating Materials<a class="headerlink" href="#creating-materials" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Materials are normally created indirectly by the <a class="reference internal" href="../importing_resources/importing_resources.html#importing-resources"><span class="std std-ref">importers</span></a> when you bring in external resources.</p>
<p>For instance:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Importing a 3D scene automatically generates the required <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.material</span></code>
resources</p></li>
<li><p>Importing sprites also produces associated material resources</p></li>
</ul>
<p>You can also create standalone materials directly in the <a class="reference internal" href="../level_editor/level_editor.html#level-editor"><span class="std std-ref">Level Editor</span></a>:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li><p>Open the <a class="reference internal" href="../level_editor/project_browser.html#project-browser"><span class="std std-ref">Project Browser</span></a></p></li>
<li><p>Right-click inside the target folder</p></li>
<li><p>Choose <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">New</span> <span class="pre">Material...</span></code></p></li>
<li><p>Give it a unique name and confirm</p></li>
</ol>
</section>
<section id="assigning-materials-to-units">
<h2>Assigning Materials to Units<a class="headerlink" href="#assigning-materials-to-units" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Materials are assigned to units through their rendering components. The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Mesh</span>
<span class="pre">Renderer</span></code> component for example exposes a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Material</span></code> property.</p>
<figure class="align-center" id="id2">
<img alt="../_images/mesh_renderer_material.svg" src="../_images/mesh_renderer_material.svg" /><figcaption>
<p><span class="caption-text">The Material selector in the Mesh Renderer component.</span><a class="headerlink" href="#id2" title="Permalink to this image">¶</a></p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Click the folder icon next to the material’s name to open the Material Chooser
and pick the desired material from the list.</p>
<p>You can also assign materials programmatically at runtime via
the <a class="reference internal" href="../lua_api.html#renderworld"><span class="std std-ref">RenderWorld</span></a> Lua API.</p>
</section>
<section id="modifying-material-properties">
<h2>Modifying Material properties<a class="headerlink" href="#modifying-material-properties" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Once a material is assigned, you can modify its properties dynamically from
Lua scripts using the <a class="reference internal" href="../physics/rigid_bodies.html#material"><span class="std std-ref">Material</span></a> API.</p>
</section>
</section>


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