threejs-syntax-materials

threejs-syntax-materials

Quick Reference

Material Type Decision Tree

Use Case	Material	Why
UI elements, unlit scenes	MeshBasicMaterial	Cheapest, no light computation
Matte diffuse (low-end devices)	MeshLambertMaterial	Fast diffuse, no specular
Legacy specular highlights	MeshPhongMaterial	Blinn-Phong model, not physically correct
General-purpose 3D (recommended)	MeshStandardMaterial	PBR metalness/roughness, industry standard
Glass, car paint, fabric, soap bubbles	MeshPhysicalMaterial	Advanced PBR (clearcoat, transmission, sheen, iridescence)
Cartoon/anime style	MeshToonMaterial	Discrete cel-shading steps
Sculpting previews, no lights	MeshMatcapMaterial	Matcap texture, zero light setup
Debug normals	MeshNormalMaterial	RGB = surface normal direction
Invisible shadow receiver	ShadowMaterial	Transparent shadow catcher
Solid lines	LineBasicMaterial	Simple colored lines
Dashed lines	LineDashedMaterial	Requires line.computeLineDistances()
Particles	PointsMaterial	Point cloud rendering
Billboards	SpriteMaterial	Always-facing-camera quads

Base Material Properties (All Materials)

Property	Type	Default	Description
side	number	FrontSide	FrontSide, BackSide, or DoubleSide
transparent	boolean	false	Enable alpha blending
opacity	number	1	Requires transparent: true to take effect below 1
depthWrite	boolean	true	Write to depth buffer
depthTest	boolean	true	Test against depth buffer
blending	number	NormalBlending	NoBlending, AdditiveBlending, SubtractiveBlending, MultiplyBlending, CustomBlending
alphaTest	number	0	Discard fragments with alpha below this value
visible	boolean	true	Whether to render this material
wireframe	boolean	false	Wireframe rendering mode
fog	boolean	true	Affected by scene fog
clippingPlanes	Plane[]	null	Array of clipping planes
clipIntersection	boolean	false	Clip where ALL planes intersect (vs union)
needsUpdate	boolean	false	Set true to trigger shader recompilation
toneMapped	boolean	true	Apply renderer tone mapping

Base Material Methods

Method	Signature	Description
clone	(): Material	Clone the material
copy	(source: Material): Material	Copy properties from source
dispose	(): void	Free GPU resources -- ALWAYS call when removing
onBeforeCompile	(shader, renderer): void	Hook to modify shader before compilation
setValues	(values: Object): void	Set multiple properties at once

Critical Warnings

NEVER set opacity < 1 without transparent: true -- the opacity value is silently ignored. ALWAYS pair them together.

NEVER use MeshPhysicalMaterial when MeshStandardMaterial suffices -- Physical compiles a significantly larger shader. ONLY use it when you need clearcoat, transmission, sheen, iridescence, or anisotropy.

NEVER set SRGBColorSpace on normal maps, roughness maps, metalness maps, or any data texture -- this corrupts the data and causes incorrect lighting. ONLY set SRGBColorSpace on diffuse/color/emissive textures.

NEVER forget to call material.dispose() and texture.dispose() when removing objects -- GPU memory leaks accumulate and crash the application.

NEVER set linewidth > 1 on LineBasicMaterial -- it is silently ignored on most platforms due to WebGL limitations. ALWAYS use Line2 + LineMaterial from three/addons/lines/ for thick lines.

ALWAYS set material.needsUpdate = true after changing properties that affect shader compilation (e.g., toggling flatShading, changing side, adding/removing texture maps at runtime).

ALWAYS set wrapS and wrapT to RepeatWrapping when using texture.repeat values other than (1, 1) -- the default ClampToEdgeWrapping does NOT tile textures.

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MeshStandardMaterial (PBR)

The recommended material for most 3D scenes. Uses physically-based metalness/roughness workflow.

import { MeshStandardMaterial, TextureLoader, SRGBColorSpace, RepeatWrapping } from 'three';

const loader = new TextureLoader();
const material = new MeshStandardMaterial({
  color: 0xffffff,
  roughness: 0.7,           // 0 = mirror, 1 = fully rough
  metalness: 0.0,           // 0 = dielectric, 1 = metal
  map: null,                // Diffuse/albedo texture
  roughnessMap: null,       // Per-pixel roughness
  metalnessMap: null,       // Per-pixel metalness
  normalMap: null,          // Surface normal perturbation
  normalScale: new Vector2(1, 1),
  aoMap: null,              // Ambient occlusion (requires uv2)
  aoMapIntensity: 1.0,
  emissive: 0x000000,       // Emissive color
  emissiveMap: null,        // Emissive texture
  emissiveIntensity: 1.0,
  envMap: null,             // Environment reflection map
  envMapIntensity: 1.0,
  bumpMap: null,            // Grayscale height map
  bumpScale: 1.0,
  displacementMap: null,    // Vertex displacement map
  displacementScale: 1.0,
  displacementBias: 0.0,
  alphaMap: null,           // Per-pixel transparency
  lightMap: null,           // Baked lighting (requires uv2)
  lightMapIntensity: 1.0,
  flatShading: false,
  wireframe: false,
  fog: true
});

---

MeshPhysicalMaterial (Advanced PBR)

Extends MeshStandardMaterial with ALL its properties, plus:

Property	Type	Default	Description
clearcoat	float	0.0	Clear coat layer intensity (0-1)
clearcoatRoughness	float	0.0	Clear coat roughness
clearcoatMap	Texture	null	Clear coat intensity map
clearcoatNormalMap	Texture	null	Clear coat normal map
transmission	float	0.0	Physically-based transparency (0-1)
transmissionMap	Texture	null	Transmission map
thickness	float	0.0	Volume thickness for transmission
thicknessMap	Texture	null	Thickness map
ior	float	1.5	Index of refraction (1.0-2.333)
attenuationDistance	float	Infinity	Light attenuation distance in volume
attenuationColor	Color	white	Light attenuation tint
sheen	float	0.0	Sheen layer intensity (fabric-like)
sheenColor	Color	0x000000	Sheen tint color
sheenRoughness	float	1.0	Sheen roughness
iridescence	float	0.0	Thin-film interference (0-1)
iridescenceIOR	float	1.3	Iridescence index of refraction
iridescenceThicknessRange	[float, float]	[100, 400]	Thin-film thickness range (nm)
anisotropy	float	0.0	Anisotropic reflection strength
anisotropyRotation	float	0.0	Anisotropy rotation (radians)
specularIntensity	float	1.0	Specular layer intensity
specularColor	Color	white	Specular tint color
dispersion	float	0.0	Chromatic dispersion (rainbow effect)
reflectivity	float	0.5	Reflectivity at normal incidence

---

Texture System

Color Space Rules (Critical)

Map Type	Color Space	Channels Used
map (diffuse/albedo)	SRGBColorSpace	RGB(A)
emissiveMap	SRGBColorSpace	RGB
lightMap	SRGBColorSpace	RGB
envMap	SRGBColorSpace	RGB
sheenColorMap	SRGBColorSpace	RGB
specularColorMap	SRGBColorSpace	RGB
normalMap	NoColorSpace	RGB
roughnessMap	NoColorSpace	G channel
metalnessMap	NoColorSpace	B channel
aoMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
bumpMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
displacementMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
alphaMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
clearcoatMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
clearcoatRoughnessMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
clearcoatNormalMap	NoColorSpace	RGB
transmissionMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
thicknessMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
iridescenceMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
iridescenceThicknessMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
sheenRoughnessMap	NoColorSpace	R channel
anisotropyMap	NoColorSpace	RG channels
specularIntensityMap	NoColorSpace	A channel

Rule: Diffuse/emissive/color textures = SRGBColorSpace. ALL data textures = NoColorSpace. Getting this wrong causes washed-out or over-saturated rendering.

Texture Loaders

Loader	Format	Import
TextureLoader	PNG, JPG, WebP	three core
CubeTextureLoader	6x PNG/JPG cube maps	three core
RGBELoader	.hdr (Radiance HDR)	three/addons/loaders/RGBELoader.js
EXRLoader	.exr (OpenEXR HDR)	three/addons/loaders/EXRLoader.js
KTX2Loader	.ktx2 (GPU compressed)	three/addons/loaders/KTX2Loader.js

Wrapping Modes

Constant	Description
ClampToEdgeWrapping	Edge texels stretched (default)
RepeatWrapping	Texture tiles/repeats
MirroredRepeatWrapping	Tiles with alternating mirror

Filter Modes

Constant	Type	Description
NearestFilter	Mag/Min	Pixelated, crisp (retro, toon gradients)
LinearFilter	Mag/Min	Smooth interpolation
LinearMipmapLinearFilter	Min	Trilinear filtering (default, best quality)

Texture Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
wrapS / wrapT	number	ClampToEdgeWrapping	Wrapping mode
magFilter	number	LinearFilter	Magnification filter
minFilter	number	LinearMipmapLinearFilter	Minification filter
anisotropy	number	1	Anisotropic filtering (max = renderer.capabilities.getMaxAnisotropy())
repeat	Vector2	(1, 1)	UV repeat count
offset	Vector2	(0, 0)	UV offset
rotation	number	0	UV rotation in radians
center	Vector2	(0, 0)	Center of rotation
flipY	boolean	true	Flip vertically on upload
colorSpace	string	NoColorSpace	Color space interpretation
generateMipmaps	boolean	true	Auto-generate mipmaps
needsUpdate	boolean	false	Trigger GPU re-upload

flipY Rules

• flipY = true (default): Correct for loaded image textures (PNG, JPG)
• flipY = false: ALWAYS use for WebGLRenderTarget textures, DataTexture, and framebuffer textures

---

Material Disposal

// ALWAYS dispose materials and textures when removing objects
function disposeMesh(mesh) {
  if (mesh.material) {
    // Dispose all texture maps
    for (const key of Object.keys(mesh.material)) {
      const value = mesh.material[key];
      if (value && value.isTexture) {
        value.dispose();
      }
    }
    mesh.material.dispose();
  }
  if (mesh.geometry) {
    mesh.geometry.dispose();
  }
}

---

needsUpdate Flag

ALWAYS set material.needsUpdate = true after changing these at runtime:

• Toggling flatShading
• Changing side (FrontSide/BackSide/DoubleSide)
• Adding or removing a texture map (e.g., setting map from null to a texture)
• Changing transparent or alphaTest
• Toggling wireframe
• Any property that changes the compiled shader variant

NEVER set needsUpdate = true every frame -- it forces expensive shader recompilation. ONLY set it once after the property change.

For textures: set texture.needsUpdate = true after modifying texture.image data to trigger GPU re-upload.

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Toon Material Special Rule

When using MeshToonMaterial, ALWAYS set gradientMap.minFilter = NearestFilter and gradientMap.magFilter = NearestFilter. Linear filtering blurs the discrete shading steps into smooth gradients, defeating the toon effect.

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Reference Links

• references/methods.md -- All material types with constructor signatures and key properties
• references/examples.md -- Complete working examples (PBR, textures, multi-material)
• references/anti-patterns.md -- What NOT to do, with explanations

Official Sources

• https://threejs.org/docs/#api/en/materials/Material
• https://threejs.org/docs/#api/en/materials/MeshStandardMaterial
• https://threejs.org/docs/#api/en/materials/MeshPhysicalMaterial
• https://threejs.org/docs/#api/en/textures/Texture