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Material system design

Started by skynet_7777 Mar 10, 2009 at 3:23 PM 1 replies 2.1k views

Original Post

Mar 10, 2009 at 3:23 PM

Hi All, Currently I am working on my graphics engine's material system. My initial thoughts are that each material will be represented by XML file that will refer to a FX file having pixel and vertex shader. The XML file also having variables(Shader's global variables)along with values that should be used by the shader in order to render the material.Basically it's kind of material instancing in which different values are seted to produce different results.During rendering, scene geometry will be grouped by the Shader i.e for each group in GeomertyGroups setShader(i) RenderGeometryGroup(i) Is this the suitable material system design for current generation engines.? Please, provide your thoughts/inputs for additional design considerations. Link to a article for material system design of modern game engine will also be helpful. Thanks and Regards, Skynet_7777.

InvalidPointer

Mar 10, 2009 at 7:47 PM

I'm personally a fan of DSL-type (aka Source-esque) material systems, but I'm likely going to take flak for that as opposed to using a 'standard' markup language. IIRC, Crysis uses pretty much the exact method you describe, XML-based material system and all.

JarkkoL

Mar 11, 2009 at 6:23 AM

In my engine, I define material classes in C++ and expose material specific attributes in the editor (textures, etc.) which can be assigned to the material object. When the object is rendered, it calls render() to the material class(es) assigned to it, which in turn set shaders, textures, etc. and perform the rendering of the object.

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