Cheat sheet: Materials

Various kinds of materials, and where to find them

Summary

Last documented update: January 6 2024 by manavortex

This page contains a brief overview of existing materials. Use the Table of Contents or your browser's search (Hotkey: Ctrl+F) to quickly find what you're looking for. Any links will lead you to additional context.

More and detailed information can be found under Material properties and its nested pages!

Wait, this isn't what I'm looking for!

General information

• How it works in the abstract: Textures, Materials and Shaders

• Re-using materials as templates: Re-using materials: .mi

• How it works in the example: 3d objects: .mesh files

Multilayered

• General information: Multilayered: Cyberpunk's supershader

• Properties and definition: Multilayered Material: Properties

• Preview images: Multilayered: Previews

Hands-on:

• Changing materials, colors and textures (guide)

• Using a textured material (guide)

---

Simple / Basic materials

PBR material

The default PBR material used in Cyberpunk 2077 is metal_base.remt

If this overfulfills your needs, you can also try out engine\materials\pbr_simple.mt , which has only color (RGB), Roughness, and Metalness.

White MultilayerMask

You can find a mlmask with three white layers under the following path:

base\characters\cyberware\player\a0_005__strongarms\entities\meshes\textures\white.mlmask

A white mlMask will apply the selected material to the whole surface of the mesh.

Textured Materials

For further details, see Textured (PBR) material properties

engine\materials\metal_base.remt	Cyberpunk's default textured (or emissive) material. Super versatile, supports glow and transparency
base\materials\mesh_decal.mt	For decals etc., supports alpha channel. Can optionally be made half-transparent (for tattoos etc.)
base\fx\_shaders\holo_mask.mt	Special effect material that transforms a mesh into an hologram. Can use a custom texture for decal and is color controllable.
base\surfaces\atlases\wood\wood_bare\wood_bare_01_pine.mi	Basic wood texture, no masks

Plastic (solid, coloured)

Use engine\materials\metal_base.remt, the example below has been copied from base\environment\architecture\watson\japan_town\building\hotel\motel_notell\room\_plastic_black.mi

BaseColor	base\materials\placeholder\white.xbm
Normal	optional: path to your normal map
Roughness	optional: path to your roughness map
RoughnessBias	0.200000003
BaseColorScale	Colour as Vector (Wolvenkit shows a color picker)

Gradient recolor

base\environment\decoration\decals\mesh_decal_lines\textures\lines_plain_black.mi

Cyberspace Materials

Search the asset browser for cyberspace|blackwall > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select #find-files-using-thisto find files using this kind of shader.

base\characters\common\cyberspace\silverhand_overlay_cyberspace_mml.mi	A multilayered material for cyberspace appearances. You can use this as base material to get the Johnny effect.
base\fx_shaders\blackwall_blendable_metal_base.mt	metal_base, but with that fancy blackwall effect that we all know and love. There are blackwall variants of most shaders, check the hint box.

Metal Materials

base\environment\decoration\containers\cases\coffin\textures\m_z_gold.mi

a shiny gold (metal_base.remt)

Decal materials

Search the asset browser for decal > .mt, then right-click the file and select #find-files-using-thisto find files using this kind of shader.

base\materials\mesh_decal_gradientmap_recolor_emissive.mt	no animation support. Supports recolouring (via color picker), emissive (EV) and gradientMaps as well as transparency via masking.
base\materials\mesh_decal_emissive.mt	animation support. Supports emissive (via EV), recolouring (numeric), and tiling.
base\materials\decal_tintable.mt	no animation support, no emissive, but Diffuse, Normal, Roughness and Metalness, and allows different color assignments for R, G and B channels of TintMaskTexture. Not used by anything.
base\materials\mesh_decal_multitinted.mt	unfortunately not used by anything, but supports up to 10 tints! If anyone finds out how the TintMaskTexture needs to look, please document!

Emissive Materials

Search the asset browser for emissive > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select #find-files-using-thisto find files using this kind of shader.

See Emissive Material Propertiesfor how it works and how to configure it.

material	description
base\environment\decoration\furniture\kitchen\neokitsch_fridge\textures\mi_neokitsch_fridge_z_emissive.mi	White emissive bright glow (from a fridge)
base\materials\screen\screen_fluff_blue.mi	blue/pinkish oscillating glow (from the collar of the jacket V wears in the trailer)
base\fx\shaders\neon_tubes.mt	A glowing shader with color parameter
base\fx\shaders\signages.mt	The standard neon for advertising fonts in Night City. Comes in many colours, can be customized via textures and gradients. Check "city_deco_font" for examples.
base\fx\shaders\hologram_two_sided.mt	half-transparent holo material, allows three colours to tint it
base\vehicles\standard\v_standard3_militech_hellhound\entities\meshes\textures\max_tac_stripe_01.mi	Use it with any texture for a cool rotating glow shader (it's fun)
base/fx/shaders/device_diode.mt	A glowing shader with RGB color attribute and up to three glowing shades

Holo Shaders

material	description
base\fx\_shaders\hologram.mt	Holo material (example .mi)
base\fx\_shaders\holo_mask.mt	Special effect material that transforms a mesh into a hologram. Can use a custom texture for decal and is color controllable.

Blackbody Shaders

Search the asset browser for blackbody > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select #find-files-using-thisto find files using this kind of shader.

Blackbody shaders are used for heat. Their colour can be adjusted via the temperature parameter.

material	description
base\fx\shaders\metal_base_blackbody.mt	A PBR temperature shader for numeric values, can be used in e.g glowing coal (find files using this for examples)
base\fx\shaders\blackbodyradiation.mt	A temperature shader with smoke effects
base\fx_shaders\multilayer_blackbody_inject.mt	A temperature shader with mlmask and -setup
base\fx\shaders\blackbody_simple.mt	A temperature shader with a texture and a numeric temperature value

FX Shaders

Search the asset browser for fx > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select #find-files-using-thisto find files using this kind of shader.

FX shaders are animated effect shaders.

material	description
base\fx\shaders\metal_base_glitter.mt	A PBR temperature shader. Configured with numeric values.
base\fx\shaders\metal_base_blackbody.mt	A blackbody shader for e.g. glowing coal. Copy from base\environment\decoration\misc\foliage\burnt_wood\burnt_wood_ab.mesh
base\fx_shaders\oda_helm.mt	Oda's helmet shader. Colour is assigned via the lightComponent in the helmet's .ent file
base\fx_shaders\lightning_plasma.mt	Used by female V's electric mantis blades and nothing else

Something else to dig into: emitters/particleDrawer/meshes

Transparent

Glass

Search the asset browser for glass > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select #find-files-using-thisto find files using this kind of shader.

For more details on glass materials and instructions on how to configure them, see here.

Basic glass, with warping properties, simple tint as color, simple opacity	base\materials\glass_onesided.mt
Non-warping glass, destructible, tintable via colors	base\vehicles\common\materials\glass_windshield_tinted_black.mi
Device screen glass	base\fx\shaders\parallaxscreen.mt

Plastic (see-through)

For a full documentation of this material, check Transparent material properties -> Transparent plastic

base\materials\glass_onesided.mt

take from Hanako's dress, localMaterialBuffer.materials.transparent base\characters\main_npc\hanako\t1_001_wa_dress__hanako.mesh

See-through cloth

For a full documentation of this material, check Transparent material properties -> See-through cloth

base\materials\glass_onesided.mt

take from mana's Barong Tagalog mod, manavortex\clothing\torso\barong_tagalog\meshes\pma__barong__base_body.mesh or download the .mi file

Liquid materials

Use base\materials\fillable_fluid_vertex.mt to fill vessels, or see here for details.

Reflective/Mirror-ish materials

Mirrors are generally a farce but here are your options:

• metal_base.remt with roughness set to black and metalness set to white. Quick in-game example here: base\environment\decoration\furniture\bathroom\mirror\mirror_a.mesh

• base\vehicles\common\materials\glass_tech_reflective.mi: this may seem a little better depending on your use case (for eg car side mirrors). Since the base material is just base\materials\glass.mt - you'll need to place a black planar mesh behind the mirror mesh so that it isn't see through and adjust the TintColor + GlassSpecularColor to a light-ish grey

Reflections in both the above cases are going to be cubemaps in non-RT graphic modes so they will not be high res or even accurate most of the time (you won't see NPCs for example)

With ray tracing, the reflection will look better and accurate

Below example image use glass_tech_reflective.mi

Non-ray traced cubemap reflection	Ray traced reflections

Other materials

Cyberpunk 2077 uses materials cleverly, and often you can save a lot of work by simply re-using something CDPR has already defined

Zipper

You can find a ready-to-use zipper material by copying dec_zipper from base\characters\garment\player_equipment\torso\t1_057_tankbra\t1_057_pwa_tankbra.mesh

Stitches

Find a ready-to use stitches material by copying dec_stitches from base\characters\garment\player_equipment\torso\t1_057_tankbra\t1_057_pwa_tankbra.mesh

This material uses metal_base.remt and can be recoloured via BaseColorScale vector attribute (Wolvenkit will show a color picker)