Editing Values

All values update in real time. Rendering is not supported for all values, however. Be sure to save the NUD to preserve any changes.

Material Presets

Forge's updater will not overwrite the existing presets. Download the latest commit from Github to ensure you have the latest presets. Descriptions, images, and usage tips can be found in Part 2 of the material editing guide.

Load Preset

Replace the current material with one of the material presets. There are different presets for character and stage materials.

Save Preset

Saves the current material as a .NMT file you can use when loading presets. Place your material presets in the materials\Character Mats or materials\Stage Mats folder of the Smash Forge directory.

Material Preview Images

Material presets will not be changed when Forge is updated using the included updater (clicking the green download icon). When the material editor is opened, preset images are rendered automatically for all presets using the same shading used for NUD models.

Material Selector

Most materials will only have a Material_0. For materials with multiple layers, such as eyes with final smash materials, you will also be able to select the Material_1. The + and x buttons will add and delete the selected material, respectively. Polygons will always have at least one material and no more than two materials.

General Tab

Material Flags

The material flags represented in hexadecimal. Editing the values in the text box will update the material flags. Some flags values will enable certain shading effects in the viewport. Changing the 4th byte will change the textures used by the model.

Alpha Blending

This section controls alpha blending. See the Material Editing Guide Part II for more information. Not all values will render accurately in the viewport.

SrcFactor

The source factor used for alpha blending.

DstFactor

The destination factor used for alpha blending. Can also control the blending equation.

Alpha Testing

Enables/disables alpha testing. See the Material Editing Guide Part II for more information.

AlphaFunc

The function used to test whether a fragment passes the alpha test.

Reference Alpha

The comparison value used to discard fragments when alpha testing. Values are 0 to 255 rather than 0.0 to 1.0.

Misc

These values can usually be left at their default value.

Cull Mode

Enables/disables face culling. Back or front faces can be culled.

z-Buffer Offset

???

Shadows

Enables shadow casting for the polygon. Shadow casting is still highly experimental for Forge's viewport.

Glow

Used by some polygons to enable a glow effect.

Textures Tab

Textures

Renders the RGB channels on the left and the alpha channel on the right for the selected texture.

Textures List

Displays the texture types used for the current material. Changing the texture flags will update the types of textures in this list.

Double click on of the texture thumbnails to open a texture selection window. Double click on one of the texture icons or select a texture and hit apply. This is faster than copy pasting the ID. Texture icons are generated for any NUT files that are currently open.

Texture ID

Displays the ID associated with the currently selected texture. If you want to change the ID in the NUT itself, use the NUT Editor instead. The Texture ID should match a texture in the model.nut or a dummy texture ID. Incorrect texture IDs will render as black in the RGB/Alpha previews and white in the textures list.

Texture Properties

WrapModeX

The wrap mode can be either repeat, mirror or clamp.

WrapModeY

The wrap mode can be either repeat, mirror or clamp.

Map Mode

This should just be left at TexCoord.

Min Filter

The texure filtering method used for minimizing. This can usually just be left at Nearest or Nearest_Mipmap_Linear.

Mag Filter

The texure filtering method used for magnification. Using Linear will prevent textures from looking jagged when zooming in. For low resolution spritework, such as Pac Man's ghosts, set this to Nearest to avoid blurring the textures.

Mip Detail

Properties Tab

Properties

A list of all the material properties of the selected material. You can add properties from the drop down menu or remove properties.

Param

Each material property has four parameters that can be edited. Researched parameters will have labels. Values that are still being researched will have the default labels of param1, param2, etc.

Param Sliders

Forge has sliders for each of the four params for quicker editing. The maximum parameter value possible using the slider depends on the material property and parameter. You can enter values in the text boxes greater than the maximum value or smaller than the minimum value possible with the sliders.

Description Tooltips

A description of the function of the four parameter values will display when hovering the mouse over the parameter name. Usually, this is an RGB color with an additional parameter. General descriptions are displayed when hovering the mouse over the property name (ex: "NU_diffuseColor"). See the material editing guide for more detailed descriptions and screenshots.

Material Editing Tutorials

You can find Part 1 and Part 2 of the material editing guide on Gamebanana. Part 1 covers many of the material properties and includes example images and explanations. Part 2 explains flags, material presets, textures, and other effects.

Material Research Repository