MaterialX 1.38.7 adds graph editor, native Metal support
The Academy Software Foundation has released MaterialX 1.38.7, the latest version of the open standard for exchanging materials and look dev information between DCC software applications.
Key changes include the MaterialX Graph Editor, a new example application for editing MaterialX graphs, native support for Apple’s Metal Shading Language, and support for the Adobe RGB colour space.
An exchange standard for materials and look dev information, widely supported in VFX software
Originally developed at Industrial Light & Magic and open-sourced in 2017, MaterialX is an open standard for exchanging rich material and look dev data between DCC applications.
It is now supported in key VFX tools, including Maya, Houdini and the Arnold and RenderMan renderers, with industry standards body the Academy Software Foundation having overseen its development since 2021.
New in 1.38.7: example graph editor and native support for Metal Shading Language
New features in MaterialX 1.38.7 include the MaterialX Graph Editor, a new example application for creating and editing MaterialX graphs.
It forms a template that studios and commercial software developers looking to integrate MaterialX into their applications can use to build a GUI to author and edit MaterialX materials.
In addition, MaterialX now has native support for Metal Shading Language, used for GPU acceleration on Macs and iOS devices.
Other changes include support for the Adobe RGB colour space, used widely in screen-to-print workflows, support for coated emissive surfaces, and updates to the glTF PBR shading model.
Licence and system requirements
The MaterialX source code is available under an open-source Apache 2.0 licence. Compiled binaries are available for Windows, Linux and macOS.
Read a full list of changes in MaterialX 1.38.7
(Includes links to download compiled binaries)