- Qt 5.3
- Qt Quick
- C++ Classes
- QSGMaterial
- Qt 5.3.2 Reference Documentation

# QSGMaterial Class

The QSGMaterial class encapsulates rendering state for a shader program. More...

Header: | `#include <QSGMaterial>`
qmake: | `QT += quick`
Inherited By: | QSGFlatColorMaterial, QSGOpaqueTextureMaterial, QSGSimpleMaterial, and QSGVertexColorMaterial.

- List of all members, including inherited members

## Public Types

enum | Flag { Blending, RequiresDeterminant, RequiresFullMatrixExceptTranslate, RequiresFullMatrix, CustomCompileStep }
flags | Flags

## Public Functions

virtual int | compare(const QSGMaterial * other) const
virtual QSGMaterialShader * | createShader() const = 0
QSGMaterial::Flags | flags() const
void | setFlag(Flags flags, bool on = true)
virtual QSGMaterialType * | type() const = 0

## Detailed Description

The QSGMaterial class encapsulates rendering state for a shader program.

The QSGMaterial API is very low-level. A more convenient API, which provides almost all the same features, is available through QSGSimpleMaterialShader.

The QSGMaterial and QSGMaterialShader subclasses form a tight relationship. For one scene graph (including nested graphs), there is one unique QSGMaterialShader instance which encapsulates the QOpenGLShaderProgram the scene graph uses to render that material, such as a shader to flat coloring of geometry. Each QSGGeometryNode can have a unique QSGMaterial containing the how the shader should be configured when drawing that node, such as the actual color to used to render the geometry.

The QSGMaterial has two virtual functions that both need to be implemented. The function type() should return a unique instance for all instances of a specific subclass. The createShader() function should return a new instance of QSGMaterialShader, specific to the subclass of QSGMaterial.

A minimal QSGMaterial implementation could look like this:

    class Material : public QSGMaterial
    {
    public:
        QSGMaterialType *type() const { static QSGMaterialType type; return &type; }
        QSGMaterialShader *createShader() const { return new Shader; }
    };

Note: All classes with QSG prefix should be used solely on the scene graph's rendering thread. See Scene Graph and Rendering for more information.

## Member Type Documentation

### enum QSGMaterial::Flag
flags QSGMaterial::Flags

Constant | Value | Description
--- | --- | ---
`QSGMaterial::Blending` | `0x0001` | Set this flag to true if the material requires GL_BLEND to be enabled during rendering.
`QSGMaterial::RequiresDeterminant` | `0x0002` | Set this flag to true if the material relies on the determinant of the matrix of the geometry nodes for rendering.
`QSGMaterial::RequiresFullMatrixExceptTranslate` | `0x0004 | RequiresDeterminant` | Set this flag to true if the material relies on the full matrix of the geometry nodes for rendering, except the translation part.
`QSGMaterial::RequiresFullMatrix` | `0x0008 | RequiresFullMatrixExceptTranslate` | Set this flag to true if the material relies on the full matrix of the geometry nodes for rendering.
`QSGMaterial::CustomCompileStep` | `0x0010` | Starting with Qt 5.2, the scene graph will not always call

QSGMaterialShader::compile() when its shader program is compiled and linked. Set this flag to enforce that the function is called.

The Flags type is a typedef for QFlags<Flag>. It stores an OR combination of Flag values.

## Member Function Documentation

### int QSGMaterial::compare(const QSGMaterial * other) const`[virtual]`

Compares this material to other and returns 0 if they are equal; -1 if this material should sort before other and 1 if other should sort before.

The scene graph can reorder geometry nodes to minimize state changes. The compare function is called during the sorting process so that the materials can be sorted to minimize state changes in each call to QSGMaterialShader::updateState().

The this pointer and other is guaranteed to have the same type().

### QSGMaterialShader * QSGMaterial::createShader() const`[pure virtual]`

This function returns a new instance of a the QSGMaterialShader implementatation used to render geometry for a specific implementation of QSGMaterial.

The function will be called only once for each material type that exists in the scene graph and will be cached internally.

### QSGMaterial::Flags QSGMaterial::flags() const

Returns the material's flags.

### void QSGMaterial::setFlag(Flags flags, bool on = true)

Sets the flags flags on this material if on is true; otherwise clears the attribute.

### QSGMaterialType * QSGMaterial::type() const`[pure virtual]`

This function is called by the scene graph to return a unique instance per subclass.