Creating a physically-based material

To create a physically-based material:

• Select the material in the Assets panel.
• Set the Shader Type to Physically-Based in the Inspector.

Editing a physically-based material

When you've created a physically-based material you'll be able to edit these properties in the Inspector:

Albedo

Albedo is the base color and texture of the material. You'll see 2 options here:

• Color - use this option to choose the base color of your material.
• Texture - Apply a base texture. The texture will be modulated by the color you've selected.

Below, we've added an Albedo texture:

Surface Parameters and ORM texture

This is where you'll apply an ORM texture, using the dropdown next to ORM Texture. You can then adjust the sliders, to control:

• Occlusion - this option approximates soft shadows baked into the creased areas of a surface.
• Roughness - to add rough surface details.
• Metallic - to add metallic surface details.

Meta Spark Studio packs ORM values into the RGB channels in that order.

Here, we've added an ORM texture to a physically-based material:

Normal

This is where you'll add a normal map. The normal map lets you create the appearance of bumps, grooves and rivets without adding extra geometry to your object. Representing these details as a texture instead of geometry will increase the performance of your effect.

To add a normal map:

1. Check the box next to Normal
2. Import a texture using the dropdown next to Texture.

The surface of the object now looks textured, and more like a real material:

You’ll notice that as well as adding the normal map texture, we also change the Strength. This value changes the strength of the normal map texture, which has the effect of making the texture more or less prominent. Values between 0 and 1 will limit the texture’s effect. Values above 1 will exaggerate it. Negative values will invert the normal map

Emission

Check this box to allow your material to illuminate from itself. Light emitted will only affect your material, not other materials in your scene - like a standard light source would.

You can also use the Color option to:

• Add an emission color.
• Apply a texture.

The emission texture and color will modulate.

Environment

Apply either a preset environment texture, or import your own.

Environment textures use images to provide lighting that mimics lighting in a real-life setting. For example the lighting in an office or outside on the beach.

Below, we've added an environment light, ORM texture and normal map:

Tiling textures

Tile

Scale the textures you've applied to your material.

Offset

Shift the origin of your textures.

Render Options and Advanced Render Options

Edit these properties to control how the material renders in the scene.

Used By

The object this material is applied to.