Base Armor
Pristine Painted Steel
Primary plated steel for chassis and torso shells.
Dev Journal Entry
Pristine Materials Sprint: Plastic, Carbon, Painted Steel
March 2, 2026
Rendering / Materials
Material goals for the current pass
The previous material variants were serviceable but visually noisy at tactical zoom. This pass focuses on clean, readable surfaces that still feel engineered rather than toy like.
Pristine variants target three core reads: painted steel for armor shells, plastic for composite housings, and carbon for high end accent panels.
- Reduce grime and stochastic noise while preserving edge readability.
- Strengthen specular highlights for a premium PBR response.
- Keep surface breakup consistent across the full unit roster.
Procedural texture upgrades
The procedural texture generator now supports dedicated pristine variants. These reduce wear masks, soften seam depth, and tighten panel noise so materials feel clean and intentional.
Carbon weave output has been refined to hold pattern clarity at mid range zoom without banding.
- Added pristine variants for painted steel, plastic, and carbon.
- Lowered grime and wear mask influence for clean surfaces.
- Adjusted roughness curves to keep highlight shape stable.
Unit wide channel routing
Team Primary
Pristine Painted Steel
Keeps team zones consistent with the base coating.
Team Secondary
Pristine Plastic
Composite housings and structural shields.
Accent
Pristine Carbon
High end trim and sensor banding.
Material variants now route consistently across unit channels so the look stays stable regardless of role or tech tier. This was the fastest way to lift baseline quality while we continue iterating on high frequency detail.
The routing change is enforced in preview and runtime paths to keep MeshLab, menu previews, and the in game renderer aligned.
- Single pristine set applied across all unit previews.
- Preview and runtime material paths are now aligned.
- Sets the baseline for future micro detail refinement.
Next steps for material polish
The immediate priority is a regeneration pass of the material atlas so the pristine variants are baked into the generated texture set. After that, we will iterate on micro surface breakup, decals, and weathering control in a more intentional pass.
- Regenerate the material texture atlas to lock in pristine variants.
- Introduce controllable decal layers for unit markings.
- Iterate on micro roughness to maintain premium sheen.