Editor v1.47.0 release with some changes to Materials

Announcements
1

On November 27th 2024, we released Editor v1.47.0 (release notes), featuring an upgrade to Engine v1.75.1 (release notes), which also includes the updates introduced in v1.75.0 (release notes).

To support these updates and enhance the Editor’s functionality, we’ve made adjustments to your assets:

Materials

  1. We are finally removing the old Phong shading option from materials, which has been superseded by the Physical shading model for many years. Materials previously using Phong have been automatically switched to the Physical shading model, ensuring compatibility with modern rendering standards. This change may cause minor visual differences, particularly in skydome reflections, but it aligns all materials with the more advanced and widely supported Physical shading model.

  2. Material tint options have always been confusing and inconsistent, so we’ve finally removed the flags from the UI for Ambient, Diffuse, and Emissive. Previously, these options were only available in certain cases, such as when a texture was set. With this update, tint colors are now always applied. To disable tinting, simply set it to a neutral color (the default tint colors provided when a new Material is created).

To prevent any visual changes, we’ve automatically adjusted the relevant material settings to preserve their original appearance. If no tint color was applied previously, it has been set to a suitable neutral color.

Textures

We are also adding an sRGB flag to your texture assets. This change has no immediate effect on your visuals but is being implemented in preparation for the upcoming engine version 2.

Workflow

This adjustment takes place when you open the project using the Editor for the first time. You are notified about the details in the newly added Console panel at the bottom of the Editor.

If the info messages are not displayed, you can find them in the history, which provides detailed information about the changes.

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Version Control

If you are using Version Control, these changes will appear during branch merges. Make sure to accept the changes to prevent them from being reapplied every time the project is loaded.

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Get in touch

If you have any questions or need assistance with these changes, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

2 Likes
3

I may have asked this before, but are there any plans to do something similar with models and force them all into renders? If not then is there some method for us to insert some code somewhere to change all models to renders ourselves?

4

Models and renders are very different, and we’re not planning to make any automatic conversions, as that would be very hard to do and would likely end up breaking lots of projects.

5

So I just gotta search through every scene and change them all manually?

6

You can continue using models, these are working well and are not going away.
If you need features that require render components, use those selectively.

7

which one is more resource efficient? Like a scene with 1000 model cubes vs 1000 render cubes which one renders faster.

8

Under the hood, they both use MeshInstance to render, so no difference in performance.

9

Well then what exactly is the difference between renders and models?

10

Render component lets you see / manipulate the hierarchy of the object easily. You can also see it as a hierarchy of entities in the Editor. For example a car models shows as a body and 4 wheels as children. You can easily move / replace / rotate wheels.

With model component, this shows as a single entity, so no easy access to hierarchy.