The Material node contains parameters which apply on a Material-wide basis.
The left side of the Material Editor shows parameters which apply on a Material-wide basis, such as Dispersion, Blending Mode, Matte, Shadow, as well as the Material Layers tree, and preview image. The preview image is resizable by dragging the invisible splitter located at the top of the Material Layers tree.
The Material Preview refresh routine is multi-threaded, and may even be run on more than one Material at a time. The Material's appearance updates progressively, as it is rendered. The current Sampling Level is shown as well. A Preview refresh may be started or cancelled at any time by clicking the Refresh button, or by simply double-clicking the Material Preview window.
Materials may use one of two MXM Modes: Embedded or Referenced. When a Material uses Referenced mode, its source MXM file will be re-read whenever it is loaded from a document or when it is initially loaded in the Database Manager. Therefore, any changes made to the MXM will be effective in all Scenes which use it. Materials are always saved in the document, regardless of MXM Mode, so when a Referenced Material's Source MXM is no longer available, the Material will automatically revert to Embedded mode. The use of Referenced mode can be globally disabled using the user-preference, 'Ignore Referenced MXM Mode', in which case, Referenced MXM Mode will be completely ignored. This is useful when changes have been made to a Referenced Material, but for one reason or another, it is now desired to use the Material as it was last saved, and not have its state overwritten using its Source MXM.
Options Menu:The Options menu is context-sensitive, meaning that actions which cannot be performed at the current time do not appear in the menu.
In the Material properties page, which is shown when the Material node is selected, access is provided to other parameters which are saved with the Material, including Material name, invalid-Texture status, MXM status, MXM Mode, Preview Scene, Sampling Level, Preview Save Quality, Preview Engine, and Material notes. When a Material 'Has Bad Paths', clicking the link will bring up a dialog listing the names and locations of all invalid paths (Texture, IOR, and R2) referenced in the Material:
