MaterialX Overview
MaterialX is an open standard for representing rich material and look-development content in computer graphics, enabling its platform-independent description and exchange across applications and renderers. Launched at Industrial Light & Magic in 2012, MaterialX has been a key technology in their feature films and real-time experiences since Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. The project was released as open source in 2017, with companies including Sony Pictures Imageworks, Pixar, Autodesk, Adobe, and SideFX contributing to its ongoing development. In 2021, MaterialX became the seventh hosted project of the Academy Software Foundation.
MaterialX addresses the need for a common, open standard to represent the data values and relationships required to describe the look of a computer graphics model, including shading networks, patterns and texturing, complex nested materials and geometric assignments. To further encourage interchangeable CG look setups, MaterialX also defines a large set of standard shading and processing nodes with a precise mechanism for functional extensibility.
The MaterialX library, now at release v1.39.5, is an Open Source project released under an Apache License Version 2.0.
Announcements
May 22, 2026:
MaterialX Library v1.39.5 has been released.
This version adds support for Slang shader generation,
flake nodes,
retro-reflective BSDFs,
graph editor improvements,
and much more.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.39.5 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details,
and visit the MaterialX GitHub repository
to download the latest library source code, documentation and examples.
September 15, 2025:
MaterialX Library v1.39.4 has been released.
This version adds support for WebGPU Shading Language,
hex-tiled and lat-long images,
NanoColor spaces,
2D fractals,
animated materials,
and much more.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.39.4 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
March 7, 2025:
MaterialX Library v1.39.3 has been released.
This version improves the alignment between MaterialX and OpenUSD,
adds support for OSL v1.14 and MDL v1.10,
and includes optimizations to ShaderGen and GitHub CI to improve performance for artists and developers.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.39.3 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
January 20, 2025:
MaterialX Library v1.39.2 has been released.
This version adds support for the Chiang Hair BSDF,
Disney Principled shading model,
generic color ramps,
improved Worley noise,
shader generation optimizations,
and much more.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.39.2 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
September 3, 2024:
MaterialX Library v1.39.1 has been released.
This version adds initial shader translation graphs between Standard Surface and OpenPBR Surface,
aligns the public definitions of the MaterialX Lama nodes with RenderMan,
and addresses a number of build issues in OpenUSD integrations.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.39.1 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
July 5, 2024:
MaterialX Library v1.39.0 has been released.
This version updates the MaterialX specification and codebase to 1.39,
bringing a broad set of improvements to its feature set,
pattern nodes,
and physically based shading nodes,
including support for the
OpenPBR Surface
shading model.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.39.0 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
April 12, 2024:
MaterialX Library v1.38.10 has been released.
This is primarily a patch build to improve MaterialX integrations in USD,
with the one new feature being environment light intensity controls in generated GLSL shaders.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.10 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
February 26, 2024:
MaterialX Library v1.38.9 has been released.
This version adds support for environment prefiltering on the GPU,
integrates improvements to the MaterialX Graph Editor and MaterialX Web Viewer from the ASWF Dev Days community,
and introduces the first non-photorealistic rendering node library to MaterialX.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.9 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
September 8, 2023:
MaterialX Library v1.38.8 has been released.
This release adds a rich set of new pattern nodes to the standard,
and is the first MaterialX release with support for iOS builds,
drag-and-drop loading in the Web Viewer,
and MaterialX Python distribution through PyPI.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.8 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
April 21, 2023:
MaterialX Library v1.38.7 has been released.
This release adds the
MaterialX Graph Editor,
an example application for visualizing, creating, and editing MaterialX graphs,
and support for the Metal Shading Language in shader generation and rendering.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.7 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
November 4, 2022:
MaterialX Library v1.38.6 has been released.
This release adds Unified Noise and Color Correct nodes,
improved iridescence rendering in GLSL,
and support for the MaterialX closures in OSL.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.6 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
July 9, 2022:
MaterialX Library v1.38.5 has been released.
This release adds support for Vulkan GLSL generation,
improved real-time refraction,
the new Open Chess Set example from SideFX,
and more.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.5 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
April 6, 2022:
MaterialX Library v1.38.4 has been released.
This release adds a
Web Viewer example based on
MaterialX JavaScript,
a graph for the glTF PBR
shading model,
new Worley noise nodes,
and more.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.4 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
December 14, 2021:
MaterialX Library v1.38.3 has been released.
This release adds
refactored BSDF handling in shader generation enabling more flexible and efficient vertical layering,
optimized GLSL implementations for GGX specular,
a refactoring of the TextureBaker API,
versioning and customization support to MaterialX namespaces,
an inheritance structure for versions of Autodesk Standard Surface,
color transform methods to the Image class,
and initial support for FreeBSD and Xcode 13 as well as other updates and fixes.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.3 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
October 7, 2021:
MaterialX Library v1.38.2 has been released.
This release adds
improved accuracy of directional albedo computations for GGX specular and Imageworks sheen,
an initial shader translation graph from Autodesk Standard Surface to UsdPreviewSurface,
graph definitions for the MaterialX Lama node set,
an initial ESSL shader generator,
support for filename templates in texture baking,
initial support for GCC 11, and other fixes.
Please see the
MaterialX Version 1.38.2 release page
on the MaterialX GitHub for further details.
July 14, 2021:
We are thrilled to announce that
MaterialX has been accepted into the Academy Software Foundation
(ASWF) as a Foundation-hosted project! Integration into the ASWF
is an important step forward
for the project, which will lead to broader communication and alignment with other closely-related
standards such as OCIO and OSL, and will provide a strong platform for studios, companies and
teams to contribute to MaterialX in the future.
Events
September 15, 2026 -
Academy Software Foundation
Virtual Town Halls 2026
MaterialX and OpenPBR Virtual Town Hall
(Slide Deck PDF)
August 5, 2025 -
Academy Software Foundation
Open Source Days 2025
Session
MaterialX and OpenPBR Virtual Town Hall
(Slide Deck PDF)
(Presentation Video)
July 23, 2024 -
Academy Software Foundation
Open Source Days 2024
Session
MaterialX and OpenPBR Virtual Town Hall
(Slide Deck PDF)
(Presentation Video)
August 2, 2023 -
Academy Software Foundation
Open Source Days 2023
Session
MaterialX Virtual Town Hall
(Slide Deck PDF)
(Presentation Video)
August 8, 2022 -
Academy Software Foundation
Open Source Days 2022
Session
New Developments in MaterialX and OSL
(Slide Deck PDF)
(Presentation Video)
August 5, 2021 -
Academy Software Foundation
Open Source Days 2021
Session
MaterialX New Developments
(Slide Deck PDF)
(Presentation Video)
August 26, 2020 -
SIGGRAPH 2020
Course
Physically Based Shading in Theory and Practice,
"MaterialX Physically Based Shading Nodes"
(Slide Deck PDF)
(Presentation Video)