3 file types use the .material file extension.

What is a MATERIAL file?

File used by Rigs of Rods, an open source truck, car, airplane, and boat simulator; contains nested instructions and properties that reference a particular 3D model, such as a truck, to a texture file; specifies textures that are declared in a corresponding .TRUCK file.

More Information

Category: Settings Files

Godot Engine Material

A MATERIAL file may also be a material used by Godot Engine, an open-source game development engine. It contains properties that control how light interacts with a 3D object. Some 3D scene creation tools, such as Blender , create MATERIAL files when a user exports a Godot Engine scene.

Video game developers use Godot Engine to create 2D and 3D video games. These games are comprised of one or more scenes. Often, developers create scenes outside Godot Engine and then import them. Scenes created outside Godot Engine may use internal materials, stored in the scene file, or external materials, stored in separate MATERIAL files.

For example, the Godot Blender Exporter allows developers to export scenes as .ESCN files. If a developer selects Generate External Material while creating an ESCN file, Godot Blender Exporter saves the scene's materials in separate MATERIAL files. The developer must then import these MATERIAL files into Godot Engine along with their ESCN file.

You can import the material a MATERIAL file contains into Godot Engine (multiplatform). To do so, review Godot Engine's documentation for importing scenes with separate materials.

Programs that open MATERIAL files

Updated: June 24, 2022

OGRE Material Script

A MATERIAL file may also be a material definition script used by OGRE (Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine). It contains rendering instructions and asset references that define how OGRE renders a complex material. Video game developers create and use MATERIAL files when developing games that use OGRE.

OGRE is an open-source 3D rendering engine used by many popular games. Some examples include Rigs of Rods, Torchlight, and until 2014, Roblox.

Developers using OGRE have the option of creating materials using material scripts. This allows them to easily reuse the same materials in multiple places, without manually coding the material each time. Material scripts are saved in MATERIAL files.

Each MATERIAL file typically begins with a top-level comment, stating what material the file defines. It then goes on to specify rendering instructions, carried out using various OGRE rendering techniques. Each technique can be performed one or more times, with each pass used to render the material in a slightly different way, producing a composite effect.

NOTE: The MATERIAL files that Rigs of Rods uses are OGRE MATERIAL files. Rigs of Rods uses the OGRE rendering engine.

You can open and edit a MATERIAL file with Microsoft Visual Studio Code (multiplatform) or any other source code or text editor. For instructions on how to use MATERIAL files with OGRE (multiplatform), refer to the program's documentation.

Programs that open or reference MATERIAL files

Updated: March 21, 2023