Diffuse Color Map

Command entry:

Material Editor

Standard material

Maps rollout

Diffuse button (or Color button for the Strauss shader)

Command entry:

Material Editor

Raytrace material

Maps rollout

Diffuse button

Command entry:

Material Editor

Arch & Design material

General Maps rollout

Main Maps group

Diffuse Color button

Command entry:

Material Editor

Other materials that have a Diffuse Color component

You can use a bitmap file or procedural map to assign a pattern or texture to a material's diffuse color. The colors of the map replace the material's diffuse color component. This is the most common kind of map usage.

Applying a texture with a diffuse color map

Using a map for the diffuse color is like painting an image on the surface of the object. For example, if you want a brick wall in your scene, you can use a bitmap with an image of bricks as the diffuse map in the material applied to the wall object.

NoteBy default, in a Standard material the diffuse map also applies to the ambient color. It isn't strictly necessary to lock the two, though; by turning the

lock off and using a different map for each component, you can obtain interesting blend effects. But in general, the purpose of the diffuse map is to simulate a single surface that is more complex than a basic material, and for this purpose you can leave the lock on.

Procedures

To use a Diffuse color map:

Click the map button for Diffuse.
3ds Max opens the Material/Map Browser.
Choose a map from the Maps group, and then click OK.
(If you choose Bitmap as the map type, 3ds Max opens a file dialog that lets you choose the image file.)
Use the map controls to set up the map.

Alternatively, you can use the Slate Material Editor to wire a map node to the Diffuse Color component.