Up to date

This page is up to date for Godot 4.2. If you still find outdated information, please open an issue.

Material

Inherits: Resource < RefCounted < Object

Inherited By: BaseMaterial3D, CanvasItemMaterial, FogMaterial, PanoramaSkyMaterial, ParticleProcessMaterial, PhysicalSkyMaterial, PlaceholderMaterial, ProceduralSkyMaterial, ShaderMaterial

Virtual base class for applying visual properties to an object, such as color and roughness.

Description

Material is a base resource used for coloring and shading geometry. All materials inherit from it and almost all VisualInstance3D derived nodes carry a Material. A few flags and parameters are shared between all material types and are configured here.

Importantly, you can inherit from Material to create your own custom material type in script or in GDExtension.

Tutorials

Properties

Material

next_pass

int

render_priority

Methods

bool

_can_do_next_pass ( ) virtual const

bool

_can_use_render_priority ( ) virtual const

Mode

_get_shader_mode ( ) virtual const

RID

_get_shader_rid ( ) virtual const

Resource

create_placeholder ( ) const

void

inspect_native_shader_code ( )

Constants

RENDER_PRIORITY_MAX = 127

Maximum value for the render_priority parameter.

RENDER_PRIORITY_MIN = -128

Minimum value for the render_priority parameter.

Property Descriptions

Material next_pass

Sets the Material to be used for the next pass. This renders the object again using a different material.

Note: next_pass materials are not necessarily drawn immediately after the source Material. Draw order is determined by material properties, render_priority, and distance to camera.

Note: This only applies to StandardMaterial3Ds and ShaderMaterials with type "Spatial".

int render_priority

  • void set_render_priority ( int value )

  • int get_render_priority ( )

Sets the render priority for objects in 3D scenes. Higher priority objects will be sorted in front of lower priority objects. In other words, all objects with render_priority 1 will render before all objects with render_priority 0).

Note: This only applies to StandardMaterial3Ds and ShaderMaterials with type "Spatial".

Note: This will not impact how transparent objects are sorted relative to opaque objects or how dynamic meshes will be sorted relative to other opaque meshes. This is because all transparent objects are drawn after all opaque objects and all dynamic opaque meshes are drawn before other opaque meshes.

Method Descriptions

bool _can_do_next_pass ( ) virtual const

Only exposed for the purpose of overriding. You cannot call this function directly. Used internally to determine if next_pass should be shown in the editor or not.

bool _can_use_render_priority ( ) virtual const

Only exposed for the purpose of overriding. You cannot call this function directly. Used internally to determine if render_priority should be shown in the editor or not.

Mode _get_shader_mode ( ) virtual const

Only exposed for the purpose of overriding. You cannot call this function directly. Used internally by various editor tools.

RID _get_shader_rid ( ) virtual const

Only exposed for the purpose of overriding. You cannot call this function directly. Used internally by various editor tools. Used to access the RID of the Material's Shader.

Resource create_placeholder ( ) const

Creates a placeholder version of this resource (PlaceholderMaterial).

void inspect_native_shader_code ( )

Only available when running in the editor. Opens a popup that visualizes the generated shader code, including all variants and internal shader code.