Predictive Unity Help - 1.2

Materials

Define Predictive Matter specific materials

Predictive Materials are defined using the same assets as usual in Unity : the Material asset in created in the Project tab and assigned on the Mesh Renderer component of geometries. See the Unity interface overview for details on the Unity components and workflow.

Define Predictive Matter specific materials

Predictive Matter supports materials that Unity does not, such as measured materials, polarization filters, or glasses with spectral refraction index for instance. See the Spectrums and the Polarization sections for more explanations on the spectral and polarized aspect of the light and the materials.

The supported definitions for Predictive materials are :

There are two ways of defining Predictive materials in Unity :

Use Predictive shaders : the Predictive and the Unity materials are edited at the same time,
Use any other shader in Unity and define the Predictive materials via a dedicated interface : the Predictive and the Unity materials are completely independent.

Predictive shaders

You can use the Predictive shaders to define Predictive materials. Using these shaders, the Predictive and the Unity materials are linked together and edited at the same time. This enables you to define the Predictive material while having a preview of the material in Unity.

There is one shader per material type. See the dedicated sections for details on each material type.

You can create new Predictive materials via the right click menu in the Project tab : "PredictiveSuite/Matter/Create Material" or "Create/Predictive Material".

Some materials require settings for their Unity version only : they have no impact whatsoever on the Predictive Engine render. These settings are always grouped under the "Unity Additional Settings" section.

Predictive Material edition window

Unity and Predictive materials are not necessarily linked together, they can have different definitions and use different shaders. If you define the Unity material using a non-Predictive shader (Unity Standard/HDRP shaders, custom shaders, shader graphs,...), you can define the Predictive material settings via the Predictive Material edition window (right click on the Material, "PredictiveSuite/Matter/Material Editor").

The Predictive material type is defined in the Definition field. See the dedicated sections for details on each material type.

The "Synchronize Predictive and Unity Materials" button makes the Unity material appearance coherent with the Predictive material definition. The Unity material shader will be overridden to be a Predictive shader instead.

In this scenario, there are two definitions of the material, one for Unity (defined in the usual "Inspector" : (1)) and one for Predictive Engine (defined in the Predictive Material edition interface : (2)). If you change the material in Unity, the Predictive material won't be affected and vice versa.

Normal Maps

Normal maps are a special kind of texture that allow you to add surface detail such as bumps, grooves, and scratches to a model which catch the light as if they are represented by real geometry. Normal textures should contains values in [0,255]. In Predictive Engine, they will be converted to vectors with coordinates in the range [-1,1].

All Predictive Matter materials can have a normal map.

See the Unity documentation for more details on normal mapping.

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