What's different between pc.Material, pc.BasicMaterial and pc.StandardMaterial?

Help & Support
1

As the title, I don’t know the difference between these materials.
From the source code of playcanvas engine, pc.StandardMaterial and pc.BasicMaterial both inherit from pc.Material. They both have setShader method.
If I want to write custom shader, Which material should I use ? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

2

Standard is for usual cases. It has shader for reflection, diffuse map, efc. Most of time its enough.

If you need custom effects with your own shaders, use basic one.

3

But in the official custom shader tutorial, it use pc.Material instead. :disappointed_relieved:


    // Create the shader from the definition
    this.shader = new pc.Shader(gd, shaderDefinition);

    // Create a new material and set the shader
    this.material = new pc.Material();
    this.material.setShader(this.shader);

What’s the different?

1 Like
4

Well, the best way to compare fully it is to check Basic ones definition on GitHub.

In a nutshell, you can replace any shader with yours.
Basic has only diffuse map, standard has a lot of maps for almost any purpose.

So it depends on what do you want. If you need only shader - use pc.Material either than any other.

1 Like
5

I see, thank you. :smiley: