The MaterialX Viewer leverages shader generation to build GLSL shaders from MaterialX graphs, rendering the results using the NanoGUI framework. The standard set of pattern and physically-based shading nodes is supported, and libraries of custom nodes can be included as additional library paths.
Figure 1: Procedural and uniform materials in the MaterialX viewer
Figure 2: Textured, color-space-managed materials in the MaterialX viewer
Figure 3: Droid character materials in the MaterialX viewer. © & TM Lucasfilm Ltd. Used with permission.
Select the MATERIALX_BUILD_VIEWER option in CMake to build the MaterialX Viewer. Installation will copy the MaterialXView executable to a /bin directory within the selected install folder.
- Load Mesh: Load a new geometry in the OBJ format.
- Load Material: Load a material document in the MTLX format.
- Load Environment: Load a lat-long environment light in the HDR format.
- Property Editor: View or edit properties of the current material.
- Advanced Settings : Asset and rendering options.
The default display geometry for the MaterialX viewer is the Arnold Shader Ball, which was contributed to the MaterialX project by the Solid Angle team at Autodesk. To change the display geometry, click Load Mesh and navigate to the Geometry folder for additional models in the OBJ format.
If a loaded geometry contains more than one geometric group, then a Select Geometry drop-down box will appear, allowing the user to select which group is active. The active geometric group will be used for subsequent actions such as material assignment and rendering property changes.
To change the displayed material, click Load Material and navigate to the Materials/Examples/StandardSurface or Materials/Examples/UsdPreviewSurface folders, which contain a selection of example materials in the MTLX format.
Once a material is loaded into the viewer, its parameters may be inspected and adjusted by clicking the Property Editor and scrolling through the list of parameters. An edited material may be saved to the file system by clicking Save Material. Clicking on Advanced Settings and enabling Show Advanced Properties will extend the set of material properties that are displayed in the editor.
Multiple material documents can be combined in a single session by navigating to Advanced Settings and enabling Merge Materials. Loading new materials with this setting enabled will add them to the current material list, where they can be assigned to geometry via the Assigned Material drop-down box. Alternatively the LEFT and RIGHT arrows can be used to cycle through the list of available materials.
If a material document containing look elements is loaded into the viewer, then any material assignments within the look will be applied to geometric groups that match the specified geometry strings. See standard_surface_look_brass_tiled.mtlx for an example of a material document containing look elements.
The default lighting environment for the viewer is the San Giuseppe Bridge environment from HDRI Haven. To load another environment into the viewer, click Load Environment and navigate to the Lights folder, or load any HDR environment in the latitude-longitude format. If the HDR file on disk has a companion MaterialX document with a matching name, then this document will be loaded as the direct lighting rig for the environment; otherwise only indirect lighting will be rendered. If the HDR file on disk has a companion image in an irradiance subfolder, then this image will be loaded as the diffuse convolution of the environment; otherwise, a diffuse convolution will be generated at load-time using spherical harmonics.
Shadow maps from the primary directional light may be enabled with the Shadow Map option under Advanced Settings. Ambient occlusion, if available for the given geometry, may be enabled with the Ambient Occlusion option. The fidelity of environment lighting may be improved by increasing the value of Environment Samples, though this requires additional GPU resources and can affect the interactivity of the viewer.
By default, the MaterialX viewer loads and saves image files using stb_image, which supports commmon 8-bit formats such as JPEG, PNG, TGA, and BMP, as well as the HDR format for high-dynamic-range images. If you need access to additional image formats such as EXR and TIFF, then the MaterialX viewer can be built with support for OpenImageIO. To build MaterialX with OpenImageIO, check the MATERIALX_BUILD_OIIO option in CMake, and specify the location of your OpenImageIO installation with the MATERIALX_OIIO_DIR option.
R: Reload the current material from file. HoldSHIFTto reload all standard libraries as well.S: Save the current shader source to file.L: Load shader source from file. Editing the source files before loading provides a way to debug and experiment with shader source code.D: Save each node graph in the current material as a DOT file. See www.graphviz.org for more details on this format.F: Capture the current frame and save to file.
The following are common command-line options for MaterialXView, and a complete list can be displayed with the --help option.
--material [FILENAME]: Specify the displayed material--mesh [FILENAME]: Specify the displayed geometry--envRad [FILENAME]: Specify the displayed environment light, stored as HDR environment radiance in the latitude-longitude format--path [FILEPATH]: Specify an additional absolute search path location--library [FILEPATH]: Specify an additional relative path to a custom data library folder--help: Display the complete list of command-line options