jMonkeyEngine 3.0 Beginner's Guide

Material definitions and shaders

For comparison with the unshaded material you just saw, what does a material look like that takes dynamic lighting into consideration?

Now, this material has a definite "smooth rock" vibe to it! You can almost touch the bumps where individual pebbles jut out! Be aware that this sphere mesh is completely featureless! The whole trick is that the material makes use of Phong illumination and Blinn bump mapping. These shader techniques are named after their inventors, Bui Tuong Phong and Jim Blinn.

Internally, 3D engines use shaders when rendering your 3D graphics. Shaders are special instructions that are executed on your ...