# Material Editor

The **Material Editor** allows us to create a **Material** that gives a **Mesh** a specific visual appearance when it comes into contact with **Light** in a **Scene**. The **Material** files have an `.incmat` as their filename extension.

To open the **Material Editor**, double-click on a **Material** file in the **Asset Manager** or right-click on the Menu bar in **Incari** and click on **Material Editor** from the drop-down list. This can be seen in the illustration below:

![](https://3875032344-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FSX7w874Eg6ode1ivk0ZM%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-99edd3d75d3174d2a8af0ad4b79bd8f74e1b28ed%2Fmaterial-editor.PNG?alt=media)

The sections defined in the **Material Editor** are discussed below:

Note: These sections will not be opened if a **Material** file has already been opened in the **Material Editor**.

The `Used Materials` section has **Materials** that have been previously applied to a **Mesh** in a **Scene**. These **Materials** can be edited by clicking on them.

`New Material`, as its name suggests, allows us to create new **Materials**. The illustration below depicts its behavior when clicked.

![](https://3875032344-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FSX7w874Eg6ode1ivk0ZM%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-fb77f7c2f1571471585c91e6c0e14e4648b2fdfd%2Fcreate-material.gif?alt=media)

`Open Material` opens a window that allows us to select an existing **Material** file. An example of the window is shown below:

![](https://3875032344-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FSX7w874Eg6ode1ivk0ZM%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-f2059ab13c92485b6da983b35b2a2dfaf2972aae%2Fopen-material-editor.PNG?alt=media)

Once a **Material** has been opened, the **Material** **Editor** allows the user to edit the **Material's** **Attributes**, as shown in the images below. Along with ways to edit **Shadow** and **Texture**, **Incari** now supports the use of *normal mapping* with the `Normal Maps` **Attribute**. This allows the user to upload a **Normal Map** file that, when applied, can improve the detail and complexity of a **Mesh** which is made up of a low number of polygons (simply put, less complex). This also helps streamline the rendering process. With this type of texture mapping, **Meshes** in **Incari** will seem as detailed as complicated ones, while being more efficient.

![](https://3875032344-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FSX7w874Eg6ode1ivk0ZM%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-0e9734bf514e6ada8e1360d2f70c5bd300d6403f%2Fmaterial-editor-1.png?alt=media)

![](https://3875032344-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FSX7w874Eg6ode1ivk0ZM%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-adcf43c4b980754f6bc064f8fb44194c1302abad%2Fmaterial-editor-2.png?alt=media)

### See Also

* [**Mesh**](https://docs.incari.com/incari-studio/2021.4/getting-started/scene-objects/mesh)

## External Links

* More on [*normal mapping*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping) on Wikipedia.