Various kinds of materials, and where to find them
Last documented update: January 6 2024 by
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!
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
General information: Multilayered: Cyberpunk's supershader
Properties and definition: Multilayered Material: Properties
Preview images: Multilayered: Previews
Using a textured material (guide)
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.
You can find a mlmask with three white layers under the following path:
A white mlMask will apply the selected material to the whole surface of the mesh.
For further details, see Textured (PBR) material properties
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
base\environment\decoration\decals\mesh_decal_lines\textures\lines_plain_black.mi
See Emissive Material Propertiesfor how it works and how to configure it.
Blackbody shaders are used for heat. Their colour can be adjusted via the temperature parameter.
FX shaders are animated effect shaders.
Something else to dig into: emitters/particleDrawer/meshes
For more details on glass materials and instructions on how to configure them, see here.
For a full documentation of this material, check Transparent material properties -> #transparent-plastic
For a full documentation of this material, check Transparent material properties -> #see-through-cloth
Use base\materials\fillable_fluid_vertex.mt to fill vessels, or see here for details.
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
Cyberpunk 2077 uses materials cleverly, and often you can save a lot of work by simply re-using something CDPR has already defined
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
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)
for cyberspace|blackwall > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select to find files using this kind of shader.
for decal > .mt, then right-click the file and select to find files using this kind of shader.
for emissive > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select to find files using this kind of shader.
| material | description |
|---|---|
| material | description |
|---|---|
for blackbody > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select to find files using this kind of shader.
| material | description |
|---|---|
for fx > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select to find files using this kind of shader.
| material | description |
|---|---|
for glass > .mt|.remt, then right-click the file and select to find files using this kind of shader.
| Non-ray traced cubemap reflection | Ray traced reflections |
|---|---|
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
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)
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.
base\environment\decoration\containers\cases\coffin\textures\m_z_gold.mi
a shiny gold (metal_base.remt)
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!
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
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.
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
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
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
base\materials\glass_onesided.mt
take from Hanako's dress, localMaterialBuffer.materials.transparent base\characters\main_npc\hanako\t1_001_wa_dress__hanako.mesh
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
