8
1264 Chapter 16: Material Editor, Materials, and Maps
Sample Slots
Material Editor > Sam pl e s lots display
Thesampleslotsletyoumaintainandpreview
materials (p age 3–1065)
and
maps. (page 3–1062)
Each slot previews a single material or map. You
can change the material by using the Material
Editor controls, and you can apply the material to
objectsinthescene.Theeasiestwaytodothisisto
drag the material from the sample slot to objects in
viewports. See
Drag ging and Dropping Maps and
Materials (page 2–1267)
.
Impor tant: While the M aterial Editor can edit no more
than 24 materials at a time, a scene can contain an
unlimited number of materials. When you are through
editing one material, and have applied it to objects in
the scene, you can use that sample slot to get a different
material from the scene (or create a new one) and then
edit it.
You can display a sample slot in a window of its
own. This magnifies the sample slot, which can
make it easier to preview the material. You can
resize the mag nified window to make it even
larger. To magnify a sample slot, double-click it, or
right-click and choose Magnify from the pop-up
menu. See
Sample Slot Right-Click Menu (page
2–1266)
.
The Material Editor has 24 sample slots. You can
view them al l at once, six at a time (the default), or
15 at a time. When you view fewer than 24 slots
at once, scroll bars let you move among them.
See
Material Editor Options (page 2–1279)
and
Sample Slot Right-Click Menu (page 2–1266)
.
A material in a slot is shown on a sample object. By
default, the object is a sphere. Use the
Sample Typ e
flyout (page 2–1275)
to change the sample object.
Sample slot showing a material
By default, a standalone map in a slot fills the
whole slot. This is when the slot shows
only
a
standalonemapatthetopofatree;whenthemap
is assigned to a material, the slot shows it as part
ofthematerial,mappedtothesampleobject.See
Get Material (page 2–1283)
and
Material Editor
Options Dialog (page 2–1280)
.
Sample slot showing a map
TheMaterialEditorrendersonlytheactivesample
sphere for the current fra me.
If the
\matlibs
subdirectory contains a material
library called
medit.mat,
thesampleslotsshowthe
first 24 materials in this library file. If the library
contains fewer than 24 materials, the remaining
slotscontainStandardmaterialsofvariouscolors,
as they do if an
medit.mat
librar y is not found.