Indigo Renderer Forum

Downloading and Using materials

When you download a material from the material database, it will either be a IGM (.igm) or PIGM (.pigm) file. IGM files are just XML files, so you can open them with a text editor. PIGM files are Zip files, so you open them with programs that handle Zip files.

Once you have downloaded the material, you will want to import it into the Indigo plugin for your modelling package. How this is achieved will vary from package to package. Also, support for IGM and PIGM files may not be complete yet.

Uploading a material:

You must be registered and logged in to the Indigo site to upload a material.

You will need to make a preview render using your material. You must use the official Indigo material preview scene for this preview render. You can get it here: http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/fo ... php?t=4209

You can upload either an IGM or PIGM file. The file you upload must conform to the IGM/PIGM specification, which you can read here:
http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/fo ... php?t=3301

You can also upload some example renders showing the material in use.

Forgive me, but I'm a fresh beginner in Indigo, as I've just started SKindigo-ing two days ago. I've found really nice materials by Whaat and I've downloaded them onto my HDD.

I am now having questions as to where to install the IGM files?
I cannot find IGMs anywhere in my SKindigo and Indigo folders.

Please advise, Indigo community.

Thanks a million in advanced.
Skipper.

Hi Skipper,

External files like igm and pigm files are included in Indigo scenes through the <include> feature, wich will specify the path for them. For instance, the material test scene linked above is using this feature by including the material to be tested from a separate file (previewmats.igs). If you open IMPmatdb.igs with a text editor you will find the <include> tag pointing to the forementioned, this exposes the functionality.

Since this is a rather advanced description, and also because this issue is adressed in an exporter specific fashion, you would have faster and more practical answers if you use the Sketchup forum instead

Hi

Why the official Indigo material preview scene,
when started in material editor and then opened by indigo for the use of slaves,
will ignore my made changes in file C:\Program Files\Indigo Renderer\data\preview_scenes\mat_db\matpreviewscene_igmesh

like: halt 2000 SPP, Aperture Diffraction, MLT
insteed i get halt -1, Aperture Diffraction of, post pro.. on, BIDIR with no MLT

I have Indigo v2.4.13, Windows 64-bit. Vista 64

With PureSpider Scene it's ok
http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/vie ... ntribution

Hi all!
Fascinated by the wonderous results of some authors out there, I started to fiddle with the shader materials of the database, and I stumbled on Galinette's terracotta exagonal tiles.

That was made when parameters' scrollbars weren't introduced yet, right? So there is no way to control parameters through an easy-going GUI, isn't it?

If so, is there a chance that one of the ISL pros of the forum (galinette himself included) rewrites the code to include the GUI cursors?

Thanks in advance!

Is there a way to make global shader parameters to avoid declaring several times, when used for instance in both bump and diffuse?

Etienne

Hi Etienne,
We did some work on that, but it's not quite finished.

galinette wrote:Is there a way to make global shader parameters to avoid declaring several times, when used for instance in both bump and diffuse?

Etienne

Yes, they are called "shared parameters", but currently aren't implemented in the UI (and maybe not fully working in the core).

The xml for that should look like this:

Yesssss

I was looking for this exactly yesterday Yves, I wanted to check on the feature again just in case.

Made them available in the UI:
Still need to make it possible to edit the shared shader code (shared_shader_info can also contain shader code).

fused wrote:shared_shader_info can also contain shader code

Does this mean we can put functions here, called by other shaders in the material?

The "must" feature would be to pre-compute shared variables with functions that Indigo calls before any call to other shaders. For instance, I often have quite complex calculations that noticeably slow down the render speed. These calculations are re-done in each channel (diffuse, bump, exponent...) which is a waste

There could be an "eval" function in shared code, which returns nothing but assigns values to shared variables. This function would be called before any call to other channels. Don't know if this is feasible...

Etienne

galinette wrote:Does this mean we can put functions here, called by other shaders in the material?

Yes.

The parsing of shared shader stuff does not work in the current release, but the next release will hopefully have it enabled (if we don't run into any problems).

galinette wrote:The "must" feature would be to pre-compute shared variables with functions that Indigo calls before any call to other shaders. For instance, I often have quite complex calculations that noticeably slow down the render speed. These calculations are re-done in each channel (diffuse, bump, exponent...) which is a waste

There could be an "eval" function in shared code, which returns nothing but assigns values to shared variables. This function would be called before any call to other channels. Don't know if this is feasible...

Etienne

You'll have to talk to nick about that, but it sounds like it could be useful.

Hey, is there a material size limit? I tried to upload a wood floor with high res textures, but it didn't work.

Oscar J wrote:Hey, is there a material size limit?

Out of interest is there? I've been unable to upload materials to the database for months, but just tried with a really small size one and it worked!

Edit: Got all excited and tried to upload some others... still not working... Is this a size thing?