material attribute

The material shape attributes control the shading, texturing and export of the shape's geometry. CityEngine supports ten texture channels with a fixed semantic.

All of these attributes can be changed using the set shape operation. You can use the print operation to output the value of a certain material attribute, eg. print(material.colormap.r).

Attribute	Description
string material.name	The name of the material.
string material.shader	The shader name. Default is "CityEngineShader". Setting it to "CityEnginePBRShader" signals that the physically-based rendering attributes should be used, see PBR material attributes.
float material.color.{r|g|b}	Diffuse color. Individual access to each color component. Default is white. See material.color attribute.
string material.color.rgb	Diffuse color. Access to the complete color as hex-formatted string, eg. RED = "#ff0000". See material.color attribute.
float material.ambient.{r|g|b}	Ambient color. Individual access to each color component. Default is black.
float material.specular.{r|g|b}	Specular color. Individual access to each color component. Default is black.
float material.emissive{r|g|b}	Emissive color. Individual access to each color component. Default is black.
float material.opacity	Opacity factor. 1 is fully opaque, 0 is fully transparent. Default is 1.
float material.reflectivity	Reflectivity factor. 0 is no reflection, 1 is full reflection (of the Reflection Map set in the Panorama settings). Note that reflection depends on the specular color: the default black color means no reflection.
float material.shininess	Phong specular exponent in the range [0, 128].
float material.bumpValue	Controls the bump scaling factor (if material.bumpmap is set).
float material.metallic	Controls the metallic factor (if material.metallicmap is set). 0 is a dielectric material, 1 is a metallic material. Default is 0.
float material.roughness	Controls the roughness factor (if material.roughnessmap is set). 0 is a completely smooth material, 1 is a completely rough material. Default is 1.
string material.colormap	Texture file paths for the texture channels. See material.map attribute.
string material.bumpmap
string material.dirtmap
string material.specularmap
string material.opacitymap
string material.normalmap
string material.emissivemap
string material.occlusionmap
string material.roughnessmap
string material.metallicmap
float material.{colormap|...|metallicmap}.s{u|v}	Per-channel texture scaling factors.
float material.{colormap|...|metallicmap}.t{u|v}	Per-channel texture translation factors.
float material.{colormap|...|metallicmap}.rw	Per-channel texture rotation factors. The texture is rotated around the w-axis (w is the cross product of u and v).
string material.opacitymap.mode	Controls how the opacitymap is combined with the colormap. Valid values are "blend", "mask" and "opaque". Default is "blend".

PBR material attributes

Some material attributes are designed to be exclusively used for physically-based rendering shaders. These are:

• material.emissivemap
• material.occlusionmap
• material.roughnessmap
• material.metallicmap
• material.emissive
• material.metallic
• material.roughness

If the shader name is set to "CityEnginePBRShader", encoders which support PBR materials use those attributes as well as the

• material.color
• material.colormap
• material.opacity
• material.opacitymap
• material.normalmap

attributes.

Rendering and export

For rendering in the CityEngine preview and for exporting the generated models, the material attributes need to be mapped to the respective format. The following table shows what format implements which feature.

Material Attribute

Asset Preview

Import

Export

Khronos Collada

Wavefront OBJ

Autodesk FBX

Khronos glTF

Khronos Collada

Autodesk FBX

Wavefront OBJ

SceneLayer Package (i3s)

Alembic

CityEngine WebScene

Unreal Datasmith

Khronos glTF

RenderMan

Vue

FileGDB

.dae/.kml/.kmz

.obj

.fbx

.gltf/.bin/.glb

.dae/.kml/.kmz

.fbx

.obj

.slpk

.abc

.3ws

.udatasmith

.gltf/.bin/.glb

.rib

.vob

.gdb

name

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

shader

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

color

Y^2

Y^1

Y

Y

Y

Y^1

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

ambient

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

N

specular

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

N

emissive

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

opacity

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

reflectivity

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

N

shininess

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

N

bumpValue

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

metallic

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

roughness

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

colormap

Y^2

Y^1

Y

Y

Y

Y^1

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

bumpmap

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

dirtmap

Y^2

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

specularmap

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

opacitymap

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y^3

Y

Y^3

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

opacitymap.mode

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

normalmap

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

N

N

emissivemap

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

occlusionmap

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

roughnessmap

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

metallicmap

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

map.tu/.tv

Y

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

N

Y

Y

N

map.su/.sv

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

N

Y

Y

N

map.rw

Y

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Remarks

• ¹ The official COLLADA standard does not support a diffuse solid color and a diffuse texture at the same time.
• ² In the CityEngine Viewport, the colormap and dirtmap values are multiplied with the (diffuse) color.
• ³ The opacitymap attribute is exported if it is pointing to the same image as the colormap attribute and if the image has an alpha channel.

Related

• print operation
• projectUV operation
• set operation
• setupProjection operation
• Texturing: Essential Knowledge

Examples

attr wallC       = "#FFFFFF"
attr wallTexture = "facade/walls/wall.c.09.tif"
attr dirtTexture = "dirtmaps/dirtmap.16.tif"
...
Wall --> 
    primitiveCube() color(wallC)
    set(material.colormap, wallTexture) projectUV(0)
    set(material.dirtmap, dirtTexture) projectUV(2)