Is there an in depth guide to the Material Editor?

[Crash180]

I have looked but haven't found much that goes beyond what is needed for armor or weapons. I've started playing with new BGEM materials and I would like to know more about all the fields and checkboxes and numbers and even more checkboxes. Getting an idea of how some of these work together but I need more info.

Edited April 17 by Crash180
clarification

[robotized]

I know about some of the settings. BGEMs are used for various effects, for glass or also can be used for glow.

I'll start with the General settings tab.

Offset/Scale UV - these are regarding the unwrapped vertices. You should rather make these kind of edits in Outfit Studio, NifSkope or other program. You don't have any kind of "preview" here and you won't know what changes until you see it in the game.

Alpha - default 1. Reduce for more transparency or increase for more opaqueness, without editing the texture.

Alpha Blend Mode - Standard is usually when you have alpha blending(semi-transparency). You should also have Alpha Property added to the BSTriShape in the nif(with appropriate settings/flags). Additive and Multiplicative are used in specific cases. Bethesda used Additive, when they did the glow for the Construction Protectron rotating light(Materials/Actors/CreateABot/ProtectronConstructionGlow.BGEM). They used Multiplicative for the chameleon deathclaw(Materials/Actors/Deathclaw/DeathclawChemeleonBlue.BGEM).

Z Buffer Test - must be always on, otherwise you have loss of depth.

Screen Space Reflections - I think it's used mostly for glass, if you have real time reflections enabled in an ENB or something.

Decal - this is rather for BGSMs, when you have alpha blending. Use with Standard blend mode.

Two Sided - self explanatory, you see the texture from both sides of the mesh, otherwise the back side will be invisible.

Non Occluder - used for glass or other objects, through which you can see what's behind. Must be on if the object will be part of the precombines.

Environment Mapping - used to create fake reflections for glass, puddles and so on.

Environment Mask Scale - for controlling the reflections, if you want more or less reflective surface.

Now on to the Effect tab.

Base Texture - could be in color or could be gray.

Grayscale Texture - here you put path for a color gradient. If Base texture is gray, you can use the grad to color it. Again for example you can refer to the chameleon deathclaw. I see for this purpose Bethesda enabled two more settings Grayscale to Palette Color(from General) and Grayscale to Palette Alpha(from Effect).

Envmap Texture - path for cubemap. Must have this texture path if you enable Environment Mapping. Fake reflections come from this texture.

Normal Texture - I think this works only if you use Environment Mapping. Bumps and cracks or whatever are mostly seen when you have reflections.

Envmap Mask Texture - I think this has similar purpose as the glow map for the BGSM. The texture is in black and white, the parts in black do not receive reflections.

Effect Lighting - not sure the exact purpose for this, but I think glass looks better with it. With this option enabled, glass changes during day and night time. If this is disabled or reduced via Lighting Influence(further below in the settings), the glass will stick out like sore thumb and even look like it's glowing at night. For glass I suggest to enable it, but reduce influence slightly, like 0.9 or 0.8.

Base Color - default is white. It has influence on the base texture. You can color the Base texture if it's gray. This could also be used for emittance/glow.

Base Color Scale - how much the color has influence on the Base texture or how strong is the glow.

Falloff  - I don't know what this setting does, Bethesda used it in some BGEM files, including for the glow of the Construction Protectron. This and anything else not mentioned, I don't know their purpose. And hopefully I'm not (too) wrong about the other settings I described above.

[pepperman35]

While it isn't specifically related to the material editor, you may also find the forum post useful:  BSLightingShaderProperty Basics

[Crash180]

This is what I was looking for. Thank you. This all started with "I'd like to make some observation glass" and hours later found myself down a hole chasing partial successes. I'm close to what I want now but the occluder part I haven't got working. I tried the Occluder option but I can see still see through the glass and if I raise the alpha it uglifies the cubemap. Is there another element I am missing?

[robotized]

Non Occluder doesn't make an object see-through, but rather tells the game that this object is see-through, that's the best way I can explain it. If you are going to build precombined geometry and visibility for a cell and don't enable this setting for your window's material, then you'll get broken visibility when you look through this window.

You need more transparency. By Alpha, do you mean in the BGEM? If so, raising it makes the texture more opaque. You should lower it - like 0.8 or 0.7 and so on. Or make texture more transparent. Does your BSTrishape have a NiAlphaProperty? Usually these are the flags/settings in the alpha property used for alpha blending:

 

Edit: I must have forgotten my glasses . You DO want to make the glass opaque. In this case what pepperman35 said below, you could use BSLightingShaderProperty instead.

[pepperman35]

If by “observation glass” you are referring to the effect of one-way glass similar to that found in an interrogation room, you could use a simple plane for the glass and use a BSLightingShaderProperty instead of the BSEffectShaderProperty.  Attached is a modified version of the BldGlassTrans01.nif for demonstration.

ObservationGlassPanel01.rarFetching info...

[Crash180]

That is close to what I am trying to accomplish. I am making a two pane window with a noticeable gap between them. For the outside pane I want to use a vanilla glass texture, add a cubemap effect and be unable to see through it. For the opposite side of the same pane I wanted to have a see through version of the same glass texture. The inside pane would just be another glass texture.

I think I am trying to do too much with the first pane and getting stuck on using BGEM only. Maybe I should split the first pane into two parts. One that has the opaque glass texture and effect (like yours) using a BGSM with the other side being the glass texture using a BGEM. Then the second pane would also use a glass texture with a BGEM. Or keep the outer glass as a BGEM and add a black occluder layer behind it for opaqueness and depth. I'm not sure the first idea will give me the appearance I want as the transparent bits will look white. Or maybe I'm overthinking this.

I am going to bend and shape them so I wanted to associate all textures with a material file so I can swap them in the CK.

[Crash180]

In your example is there a way to just display the cubemap? I have been trying to make it look like a sheet of glass with a chrome or bronze finish that doesn't look like a beacon from the next hill over. I have everything else sorted but this. 

[robotized]

  Quote

Environment Mask Scale - for controlling the reflections, if you want more or less reflective surface.

Expand  

Try lowering the scale to reduce the effect from the cube map. If using BGSM, the specular map could be considered envmap mask - more smooth and shiny surface will be more reflective. So if lowering the mask scale doesn't work for you, leave it as it was and try lowering the Specular Multiplier. But I'm thinking it should have the same result, and is recommended if using  separate custom material, only for the glass. Otherwise you will lose the effect of the specular on the rest of the mesh. I'm guessing last resort is editing the specular map itself.

[Crash180]

Tonight I tried more of the cubemaps and noticed not all of them work. They will display correctly in the build menu preview but not when built. I'm repurposing a black occluder layer in my nif and swapping it out in the CK with a modified BGSM with the cubemaps. When they don't work this black layer is what shows in game despite the preview showing otherwise. Any thoughts on this behavior?