Material Creation

A quick step-by-step guide on how to create a material in the Dota 2 Workshop Tools.

Creating a Texture

Any image file can be used as a texture so long as both of its dimensions are power of two (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, etc). Higher resolutions have memory implications while also also providing a benefit of being sharper when viewed closely. Different objects will likely follow different basic rules when determining size of textures.

Creating a Material

Images must be converted to the VMAT format using the Material Editor. The Material Editor can be launched via the Asset Browser after launching the tools.

1. Open the Material Editor
2. From the File menu, choose New
3. Save the new material. Common practice is to place materials your addon directory under a materials sub-directory for organization purposes.
4. Click the "Shader" button and change the shader to Global Lit Simple.
5. Save your image into the same location with the same name.
6. In the Variables panel, under the "color" group click on the small folder icon to the right of the path of the image. This will open a dialog looking for your previously saved image file. Common formats are TGA or PSD. Select your image and open it.
7. Save the material and it should be live in the Asset Browser.

See also

https://support.steampowered.com/kb/3081-QUXN-6209/dota-2-workshop-item-shader-masks