Material Library

Overview

Materials are either stored in separate file (.mat) or embedded into model files (.3db, .cmp, .dfm, etc).

Certain assets cannot have reference to external material file and will require materials to be embedded directly in model file, such as starspheres, cutscene props and deformable models.

Material types

Type	Alpha	Description
DcDt	No	Diffuse color + Diffuse texture.
DcDtTwo	No	Two-sided variant of DcDt.
DcDtEc	No	Diffuse color + Diffuse texture + Emission color.
DcDtEcTwo	No	Two-sided variant of DcDtEc.
DcDtOcOt	Yes	Diffuse color + Diffuse texture + Opacity color + Opacity texture.
DcDtOcOtTwo	Yes	Two-sided variant of DcDtOcOt.
DcDtEcOcOt	Yes	Diffuse color + Diffuse texture + Emission color + Opacity color + Opacity texture.
DcDtEcOcOtTwo	Yes	Two-sided variant of DcDtEcOcOt.
DcDtEt	No	Diffuse color + Diffuse texture + Emission texture.
EcEt	No	Emission color + Emission texture.
Nebula	Yes	Diffuse texture tinted by vertex color with blending (ADD, SRCALPHA, ONE).
NebulaTwo	Yes	Two-sided variant of Nebula.
BtDetailMapMaterial	No	Diffuse texture with detail texture blended in overlay mode. Detail texture uses second UV texture mapping set.
BtDetailMapMaterialTwo	No	Two-sided variant of DetailMaterial.
NomadMaterial	Yes	Special material for nomad ships.
NomadMaterialNoBendy	Yes	Ditto.
GlassMaterial	Yes	Transparent material used for cockpit.
GFGlassMaterial	Yes	Ditto.
HighGlassMaterial	Yes	Ditto.
PlanetWaterMaterial	Yes	Multiply blending mode material.
AtmosphereMaterial	Yes
ExclusionZoneMaterial	Yes	Material for exclusion zone shells.
HUDIconMaterial	Yes	Material for HUD icons.
HUDAnimMaterial	Yes	Animated material for HUD. Animation is toggled in settings.
NullMaterial	No	Fallback material.
DetailMapMaterial	No
DetailMap2Dm1Msk2PassMaterial	No
IllumDetailMapMaterial	No
Masked2DetailMapMaterial	No

• NomadMaterial and NomadMaterialNoBendy do not display when environment map is used for the object.
• ❗ Material type can be overridden by matching regexp in [MaterialMap] of dacom.ini.

When model uses both transparent and non-transparent (opaque) materials it should be multi-part compound and any mesh groups using transparent material(s) should be kept in parts separate from mesh groups using opaque materials, i.e. transparent cockpit glass should be in part separate from hull it is attached to. Mesh groups with opaque materials are drawn front to back, afterwards mesh groups with transparent materials are drawn back to front with depth buffer write disabled.

Material properties

Name	Type	Description
Ac	float[3]	Ambient color.
Dc	float[3]	Diffuse color.
Oc	float	Opacity color (alpha).
Ec	float[3]	Emission color.
Sc	float[3]	Specular color.
Sp	float	Specular power.
Dt_name	string	Diffuse texture name.
Dt_flags	uint32	Diffuse texture wrap flags.
Et_name	string	Emission texture name.
Et_flags	uint32	Emission texture wrap flags.
Bt_name	string	Detail texture name.
Bt_flags	uint32	Detail texture wrap flags.
Nt_name	string	Nomad texture name.
Nt_flags	uint32	Nomad texture wrap flags.
Alpha	float	Opacity level.
Fade	float	Steep view angle fade factor.
Scale	float	Vertex offset scaling?
Dm_name	string	Diffuse mask texture name.
Dm_flags	uint32	Diffuse mask texture wrap flags.
TileRate	float	Diffuse mask texture tiling multiplier.
Dm0_name	string	Diffuse mask 0 texture name.
Dm0_flags	uint32	Diffuse mask 0 texture wrap flags.
TileRate0	float	Diffuse mask 0 texture tiling multiplier.
Dm1_name	string	Diffuse mask 1 texture name.
Dm1_flags	uint32	Diffuse mask 1 texture wrap flags.
TileRate1	float	Diffuse mask 1 texture tiling multiplier.
flip u	uint32	Flip texture horizontally.
flip v	uint32	Flip texture vertically.

• Ac is used in AtmosphereMaterial, but can be applied to many other materials to override ambient color from scene.
• Oc is used in any transparent material.
• Ec is used in DcDtEc, DcDtEcOcOt, EcEt.
• ❗ There is no "Ot_name" or "Ot_flags" since transparency is taken from alpha channel of texture formats which support transparency.
• Et_name and Et_flags are used in DcDtEt and EcEt.
• Bt_name and Bt_flags are used in BtDetailMapMaterial and BtDetailMapMaterialTwo.
• Nt_name and Nt_flags are used in NomadMaterial and NomadMaterialNoBendy.
• Alpha, Fade and Scale are used in AtmosphereMaterial.
• Dm_name, Dm_flags and TileRate are used in DetailMapMaterial.
• Dm0_name, Dm0_flags and TileRate0 are used in DetailMap2Dm1Msk2PassMaterial, IllumDetailMapMaterial, Masked2DetailMapMaterial.
• Dm1_name, Dm1_flags and TileRate1 are used in DetailMap2Dm1Msk2PassMaterial, IllumDetailMapMaterial, Masked2DetailMapMaterial.

Material animation

Material animation is stored in model file and permits simple UV offset and scaling looped keyframe animation.

Name	Type	Description
MACount	uint32	Number of MADeltas keyframes.
MADeltas	varying	UV offset and scale velocity keyframes.
MAKeys	varying	UV offset and scale keyframes.
MAFlags	uint32	Animation flags.

Each keyframe in MADeltas:

Name	Type	Description
time	float	Keyframe time.
uOffsetSpeed	float	U tiling offset velocity.
vOffsetSpeed	float	V tiling offset velocity.
uScaleSpeed	float	U tiling scale velocity.
vScaleSpeed	float	V tiling scale velocity.

Each keyframe in MAKeys:

Name	Type	Description
uOffset	float	U start offset.
vOffset	float	V start offset.
uScale	float	U start scale.
vScale	float	V start scale.

• MAKeys keyframes count will be one less MACount. First keyframe is implicit state of original UV values.