Materials Tab

The Materials tab contains a list of properties for how the model is drawn. These include the textures which will be wrapped around the model and colours.

The Shoot ‘Em Up Kit comes with a default shader called lighting.fx. It is possible to create your own shaders and use these instead. If you do this then you can select your shader using the Default Shader dropdown list and then all the properties will be changed to refer to your shader.

Some meshes contain multiple elements (a single model built out of different parts and each individually named). In this case, you can create a default set of parameters using the Default Shader and use a different shader or set of parameters for any of the elements.

	Default Shader	Select which shader should be used as the default for rendering the model.
	Specular Glossiness	If a specular map has been provided, how shiny will the surface be when light is directed on it.
	Use Normal Map	Specify whether a normal map will be used. This also requires the normal map to be set.
	Use Reflection Map	Specify whether a reflection map (cube map) will be used. This also requires the cube map to be set. The cube map will be applied to shiny surfaces to look like a reflection.
	Use Ambient Colour	Specify whether a colour will be applied to the model even without lighting. This can be used to make models visible even when in full darkness and can simulate light reflection
	Use Diffuse Map	Specify whether a diffuse map will be used. This also requires the diffuse map to be set. The diffuse map (often referred to just as the texture map) provides the basic colour information for the model.
	Use Specular Map	Specify whether a specular map (cube map) will be used. This requires the specular map to be set and references the Specular Intensity and Specular Glossiness properties.
	Diffuse Texture	Clicking on the Diffuse Texture property will open the Texture selection dialog. You can select the texture which applies to the model or one of the generic textures (e.g. Stone or Wood).
	Diffuse Colour	If a Diffuse Texture isn’t being used, the Diffuse Colour property lets you select a colour for the model.
	Normal Texture	Clicking on the Normal Texture (sometimes known as a Bump Map) property will open the Texture selection dialog. You can select the texture which applies to the model.
	Specular Texture	Clicking on the Specular Texture property will open the Texture selection dialog. You can select the specular texture which applies to the model.
	Cubemap Texture	Clicking on the Diffuse Texture property will open the Texture selection dialog. You can select a cube map texture which will be applied to reflective areas of the model.
	Specular Intensity	You can select the colour of the specular reflections.
	Fresnel Power	A tweakable value that represents the reflection of light. This can brighten the appearance of the model.
	Flip Texture X	Select whether the textures should be flipped in the X direction. This is useful for assets exported from some modelling tools
	Flip Texture Y	Select whether the textures should be flipped in the Y direction. This is useful for assets exported from some modelling tools
	Use Luminosity Map	Specify whether a luminosity map will be used. A luminosity map describes the areas of the model that are shown at full brightness regardless of the lighting level. This also requires the luminosity texture to be set.
	Luminosity Texture	Clicking on the Luminosity Texture property will open the Texture selection dialog. You can select the luminosity texture which applies to the model.