MaterialX

MaterialX is an open standard for representing rich material and look-development content in computer graphics. It provides a flexible and extensible system for defining materials, lights, and related data that can be used across various digital content creation tools and rendering systems.

Pros

• Cross-platform compatibility and interoperability between different 3D content creation tools
• Extensible and customizable to support various material models and rendering techniques
• Strong industry adoption and support from major studios and software vendors
• Comprehensive documentation and examples for easy integration

Cons

• Learning curve for developers new to material description languages
• Limited real-time rendering support in some implementations
• Potential performance overhead for very complex material networks
• Ongoing development may lead to occasional breaking changes in newer versions

Code Examples

1. Creating a basic material:

#include <MaterialXCore/Document.h>

namespace mx = MaterialX;

// Create a document and add a material
mx::DocumentPtr doc = mx::createDocument();
mx::MaterialPtr material = doc->addMaterial("MyMaterial");

// Add a simple shader node
mx::NodePtr shaderNode = doc->addNode("standard_surface", "StandardSurface", "surfaceshader");
material->setShaderNodeDef(shaderNode);

// Set base color
shaderNode->setInputValue("base_color", mx::Color3(0.8f, 0.2f, 0.2f));

2. Loading and modifying an existing MaterialX document:

#include <MaterialXFormat/XmlIo.h>

// Load a MaterialX document from file
mx::DocumentPtr doc = mx::createDocument();
mx::readFromXmlFile(doc, "example.mtlx");

// Modify a node parameter
mx::NodePtr node = doc->getNode("MyNode");
if (node)
{
    node->setInputValue("roughness", 0.5f);
}

// Save the modified document
mx::writeToXmlFile(doc, "modified_example.mtlx");

3. Creating a node graph:

// Create a node graph
mx::NodeGraphPtr nodeGraph = doc->addNodeGraph("MyNodeGraph");

// Add nodes to the graph
mx::NodePtr noise = nodeGraph->addNode("noise2d", "Noise", "float");
mx::NodePtr multiply = nodeGraph->addNode("multiply", "Multiply", "float");

// Connect nodes
multiply->setConnectedNode("in1", noise);
multiply->setInputValue("in2", 2.0f);

// Create an output for the node graph
mx::OutputPtr output = nodeGraph->addOutput("out", "float");
output->setConnectedNode(multiply);

Getting Started

To get started with MaterialX:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX.git
   

2. Build the library:

   cd MaterialX
   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake ..
   cmake --build . --config Release
   

3. Include MaterialX in your project:

   #include <MaterialXCore/Document.h>
   #include <MaterialXFormat/XmlIo.h>
   
   // Your MaterialX code here
   

4. Link against the MaterialX libraries in your project's build system.