MatricX PRO 2.1

CONTENTS

What's Inside

SECTION 01

Start Here

MatricX PRO turns a clean model into a used one. You pick a material, stack a few restrained imperfections on it — edge wear, dirt, scratches, rust — and the surface gains a history. No texture painting, no UV work, no shader network to build.

Your first material in five steps

1. Install the add-on and the asset pack (Sections 04 and 05).
2. In the 3D Viewport press N and open the MatricX PRO tab.
3. Select a mesh, pick a Family (for example Metal), then click a material in the collection.
4. Click Apply Material.
5. Open Imperfection Studio, click Add Layer, and choose Edge Wear or Dirt.

How to read this guide

• New to MatricX? Read Part 1, then Sections 07, 11 and 13. That covers 90% of daily use.
• Coming from 2.0? Start with Sections 02 and 03, then follow the markers below.

Throughout the guide, NEW marks something added in 2.1 and CHANGED marks something that works differently from 2.0.

SECTION 02

What's New in 2.1

2.1 is about choice and control: more ready-made materials, more places imperfections can go, and faster ways to work in the viewport.

Material recipes and a larger collection

70 materials across nine families. 38 of them are recipes — finished materials built in MatricX from a base material and a layer stack. Unlike the locked authored stacks of 2.0, every recipe layer can be edited, added or removed, and Reset Imperfections brings the shipped look back. See Section 10.

Two new families

• Weapon & Guns — 19 materials: alloys, polymers, damaged steel and brass, damaged woods and four Scope Glass tints.
• Military Camo — 8 camouflage patterns, now a family of their own and open to every imperfection type.

Imperfections on more surfaces

• Powder Dust — a new 16th type: fine, pale, dry particles settled on a surface.
• Wood now takes 11 types (was 3), Rubber & Leather 15 (was 6 and 2), and Tinted Glass 10 (glass took none in 2.0).
• Dirt Stain — the former Leaking layer, reworked for dirt and liquid staining with flow, pools and wet or dried residue.
• A new Scratch Paint pattern: finer scrapes with real surface relief.

Faster to work with

• Material Family picker — a card popover to switch families in one click.
• Add Layer opens a thumbnail grid of every imperfection the material supports.
• Paint masks gain Add / Remove modes, brush Size, Strength and Soft Edge, and Mask Strength.
• Three radial pies: Viewport Ctrl+Shift+M, Decal Ctrl+Shift+D, Trim Ctrl+Shift+T.
• Link Material to Selected — share the active material with every selected mesh.
• Material Looks now also save Material Group Controls (glass, fabric, shiny and damaged woods).
• Applied materials get a matching Solid-mode colour, so parts read correctly in the Solid viewport.
• Each Apply Material click is a single undo step.

SECTION 03 · EXISTING USERS

Upgrading from 2.0

Five minutes here saves you surprises later. Read this once before opening your 2.0 projects.

1 · Install the new asset pack

MatricX PRO 2.1 needs MatricX_Assets_2.1.0.zip. Older packs (2.0.x and earlier) are recognised but never used — Locate Asset Pack tells you so if you select one. Extract the 2.1.0 pack beside the old one.

2 · Install one code package

Remove the old add-on and restart Blender before installing 2.1. MatricX disables a detected older copy and migrates your saved asset-pack path, favourites, recent items and custom material catalog — but a restart is what guarantees no old Python modules stay in memory.

3 · What moved, changed or was removed

4 · Your existing scenes

• Materials you already applied are stored in your .blend files and keep rendering. To use a new 2.1 shader (for example the new Tinted Glass) on an existing object, apply the material again.
• Scratch Paint from 2.0 switches to the new pattern the next time its material is rebuilt — when you change a setting, apply a Look, or add, remove or reorder a layer. Settings are kept, but the result looks different: finer scrapes, more coverage at the default Amount (0.25), and only the Z rotation is used. Adjust Amount and Scale if needed.
• Saved browser selections for removed decals may be empty. Pick the decal you want before placing.

SECTION 04

Installation

The three downloads

Then press N in the 3D Viewport and open the MatricX PRO tab. Continue with the asset pack in Section 05 — MatricX cannot apply materials without it.

SECTION 05

The Asset Pack

The add-on is the tool; the asset pack is what it works with. Every material file, thumbnail, texture and decal lives in the pack.

Where to put it

Extract MatricX_Assets_2.1.0.zip to a normal folder on a fast local drive. Placing it beside the installed add-on lets MatricX find it automatically. Anywhere else works too — you point MatricX to it once with Locate Asset Pack.

Locate Asset Pack

If the panel shows Asset pack not connected, click Locate Asset Pack and select the MatricX_Assets_2.1.0 folder. Any folder at or near the pack works: the pack itself, the folder you extracted it into, the wrapper folder your archive manager created, or one of its subfolders.

• The path is stored outside the add-on, so reinstalling — or switching between add-on and extension — does not lose it. It survives Blender restarts.
• If a folder is rejected, a popup explains why: no pack found, a pack too old for 2.1, or an incomplete extraction with the missing subfolders named. NEW

Linux and Flatpak NEW

On Linux, extract the pack to a normal folder in your home directory, such as ~/Downloads or ~/Documents, then use Locate Asset Pack and select the MatricX_Assets_2.1.0 folder.

Windows: keep the path short

Windows limits full file paths to 260 characters. Extract the pack to a short location such as C:\Users\<you>\Documents\ or D:\Assets\. If the folder that holds MatricX_Assets_2.1.0 has a very long path, Blender cannot read the deepest decal files and the decal browser stays empty.

SECTION 06

Interface Overview

Press N in the 3D Viewport and select the MatricX PRO tab. Three workspace buttons sit at the top of the panel.

The panel follows your selection

Select an object carrying a MatricX material and the panel loads its settings, including the whole imperfection stack. Select a decal and you get that decal's controls. Controls that do not apply are hidden or greyed out.

If you browse to a different material than the one applied, the panel says Panel is browsing a different material — click Load Applied Material to jump back.

Help

The ? button at the top of the Materials workspace shows the version and Check Update.

SECTION 07

Materials Workspace

The basic loop

1. Select one or more mesh objects.
2. Pick a Family.
3. Click a material in the Material Collection.
4. Adjust its controls in Material Setup.
5. Click Apply Material.

Material Family picker NEW

Click the Family row to open a card popover with every family. One click switches the collection.

The Material Collection

The thumbnail browser shows the current family. Use it to explore; everything you need is on one row.

• Search filters by name; the ✕ clears it.
• Favorites and Recent narrow the view; Clear empties the recent list.
• ◀ ▶ step to the previous and next material.
• Browser Options: Thumbnail Size and Show Labels.

SECTION 08

The 2.1 Material Collection

70 materials ship in the 2.1.0 asset pack. Names below match what you see in the browser; every family shows its own thumbnails there once the asset pack is connected.

Metal — 15

Default Metal · Cavity Dirt Iron · Cavity Dirt Iron 2 · Grainy Black Iron · Grainy Black Old Iron · Grainy Green Iron · Mud Stain Metal · Painted Metal · Painted Metal 2 · Painted Metal 3 · Painted Rusty Metal · Old Steel · Black Metal · Painted Scratch Metal · Painted Scratch Metal 2

Plastic — 4

Default Plastic · Old Black Plastic · Old Red Plastic · Dirty Plastic Blue

Weapon & Guns — 19 NEW

Dark Alloy · Dark Alloy Textured · Zinc Alloy · Desert Tan · Matte Black Polymer · Black Plastic · Desert Tan Plastic · Brown Tan Plastic · Tactical Yellow Polymer · Plastic Case · Scope Glass 1 · Scope Glass 2 · Scope Glass 3 · Scope Glass 4 · Damaged Steel · Damaged Brass · Damaged Wood · Damaged Wood 2 · Damaged Wood 3

Glass — 5

Glass · Plastic Glass · Chromatic Glass · Iridescent Glass · Tinted Glass CHANGED

Rubber & Leather — 8

None (plain rubber) · Normal · Black · Dark Brown Leather · Brown · Rubber Tyre · Rubber Hose · Dirty Rubber

Military Camo — 8 NEW

Camo 1 (green) · Camo 2 (triad) · Camo 3 (urban) · Camo 4 (olive-brown) · Camo 5 · Camo 6 (green digital) · Camo 7 (tan, olive and sage blocks) · Camo 8 (green with red patches)

Wood — 7

Custom Wood · Red Wood · Light Wood · Deep Brown Wood · Shiny Brown Wood · Shiny Dark Brown Wood · Shiny Deep Brown Wood

Fabric — 3 · Emission — 1

Fabric 1 · Fabric 2 · Fabric 3 · Emission

SECTION 09

Material Setup & Reset

Material Setup holds the controls of the surface underneath the imperfections. What you see depends on the family.

Every material brings its own values

Selecting a material loads its own authored colour, roughness and settings into the panel. Values never bleed from one material to the next.

Reset Base Material

The ↺ button on the Material Setup header restores the material's shipped colour, roughness and surface values. It does not touch your imperfection layers.

Bevel CHANGED

Default Metal and Default Plastic expose a Bevel radius that rounds shading on hard edges — this is what makes edge wear catch light. New materials start at 0.006.

SECTION 10 · NEW IN 2.1

Material Recipes

A recipe is a finished material made in MatricX itself: a base material with its own settings and a stack of imperfection layers. Apply one and it is done — but nothing is locked.

• It behaves like its base. A recipe built on Default Metal has every Default Metal control and accepts every imperfection Metal accepts. Weapon & Guns recipes are built on metal, plastic, glass and wood bases alike.
• Every layer is yours. Add, remove, reorder, rename and tune layers freely.
• One click back. Reset Imperfections, under the layer stack, restores the stack it shipped with, after a confirmation. Reset Base Material restores its surface values.

SECTION 11

Apply, Link, Unique, Remove

The Actions box at the bottom of the Materials workspace.

Linked materials

When one material is used by several objects, editing it updates all of them — base colour, roughness, every layer and every layer value. Use Make Unique when one object should stop following the rest.

Live Mapping

Two toggles above Apply Material keep procedural textures correct on transformed objects, without applying transforms:

• Scale Compensation keeps procedural texture size constant while you scale the object.
• Rotation Compensation keeps edge wear correct when the object is rotated.

Turn them off when you want mapping to stretch with the object, or before you apply transforms.

Solid-mode colour NEW

Applied materials get a viewport display colour taken from their own Base Color, so parts read correctly in the Solid viewport. A display colour you set by hand is kept.

SECTION 12

Material Looks

A Material Look is a complete saved setup: base material, every surface value and the whole imperfection stack. Build a look once; reuse it on every prop in a set.

1. Build and tune a material on a mesh.
2. Expand My Material Looks and click Save Current Look. Give it a name, category and description.
3. Later, select another mesh, pick the look and click Apply as Unique — it is applied as a new, independent material.

• Search and Favorites find looks quickly; the star marks a favourite.
• Rename edits a look's name, category and description; the bin deletes it.
• Library Tools → Export saves a look as a .json file to share; Import adds one to your library.
• Looks are stored in your Blender user configuration, so they follow you between projects.
• Group controls are saved too NEW — Tinted and Scope Glass, the other glasses, fabrics, shiny and damaged woods keep their Material Group Controls values.

SECTION 13

Imperfection Studio

Where a material stops looking new. Layers stack, reorder and composite over one another — you are building a history, not applying a texture.

Adding a layer CHANGED

1. Apply a material that supports imperfections.
2. Click Add Layer. A thumbnail grid shows every type the material supports.
3. Click a thumbnail. The new layer is selected so you can edit it straight away.

Managing the stack

• ▲ ▼ reorder layers. Gradient Linear always evaluates beneath the physical layers.
• Duplicate copies the selected layer with independent settings; − removes it.
• The checkbox hides a layer without losing its settings — a good A/B switch.
• Rename gives a layer a meaningful name. The ↺ on the layer card resets that layer to its type's defaults, after a confirmation.

The layer card CHANGED

Every type uses the same layout, so you always know where to look:

• Amount — how much of the surface the layer covers (two-pass types show Layer 1 and Layer 2).
• Opacity — how strong the layer is. New layers start at 1.0.
• Color, then the type's own signature controls, then its relief (Depth or Bump).
• Advanced holds the rest in the same order on every type: Pattern, Tone, Placement, Relief, Surface.

Texture / Mask preview

Switch to Mask to see the active layer alone, in greyscale — white is where the imperfection appears. It is the fastest way to understand what a slider does.

Tiling (anti-tiling)

Large surfaces reveal the repeat in any texture. Tiling blends phase-shifted samples to break it up.

In Auto, the info line under Tiling shows what was decided for the current object.

SECTION 14

The 16 Imperfection Types

Tone & Finish

Edges & Damage

Scratches & Marks

Dirt & Weathering

Which materials support which types CHANGED

Add Layer only offers what makes sense on the selected material.

SECTION 15

Paint Masks

Procedural masks decide where an imperfection goes by rule. A paint mask lets you decide by hand — brush rust onto the one corner that should have it, wipe grime off where a hand would polish.

Painting a layer

1. Select the layer and expand Paint Mask.
2. Choose a Paint Mode, then click Start Painting. MatricX switches to Vertex Paint with a brush ready.
3. Paint on the mesh.
4. Click Finish Painting to return to the finished material.

Paint Mode NEW

Switching modes never changes what is already painted. Pick whichever means less painting.

Brush and Mask controls NEW

• Size, Strength and Soft Edge set the brush. Strength is linear: 0.5 paints half.
• Mask Strength scales the whole painted mask without repainting. 0 ignores the paint.
• Mask Utilities: Hide Everywhere, Show Everywhere (both replace every stroke), and Delete Paint Mask, which returns the layer to its procedural mask.

SECTION 16

Custom PBR Materials

Turn an external texture set into a reusable MatricX entry.

1. Set the family to Custom Material.
2. Click + and select one or more texture files from the set's folder.
3. MatricX scans the folder and identifies the maps by name.
4. Check the detected entry, then click Apply Custom Material.

Entries are stored in add-on preferences and stay available across projects. Imperfection layers are not offered on custom materials — your maps are the complete surface definition.

SECTION 17

Decals Workspace

Place, project and manage decal objects. The official library has 17 decals CHANGED; add as many of your own as you like (Section 18).

Placing a decal

1. Pick a library, category and decal thumbnail.
2. Click Place Decal and move the cursor over a mesh — the decal aligns to the surface.
3. Confirm.

Input	Action
LMB / Space	Confirm
RMB / Esc	Cancel
Wheel	Rotate 15°
Ctrl + Wheel	Rotate 5°
Shift + Wheel	Scale
R	Straighten

Working with a placed decal

• Reposition moves it to another point or mesh, keeping its settings.
• Scale & Rotate resizes or angles it in place.
• Opacity blends it into the surface, from 0 to 1. CHANGED
• Adjust Offset sets the gap that prevents z-fighting; Set 1 mm Offset is a good start.
• Conform Quality sets how closely it follows curved surfaces.
• Project to Surface builds final conforming geometry. Only the first surface along each ray is kept, so a decal never prints through a closed mesh.
• Material Base / Subset Base on surface decals: Color, Metallic, Roughness, IOR, or Match Target Material.
• Scene Decals: Select All, Hide, Show and Delete All Decals.

For speed in the viewport, use the Decal pie, Ctrl+Shift+D (Section 21).

SECTION 18

Your Own Decal Libraries

Adding a library

1. Click + on the Decal Library header, or Add Library in Preferences.
2. Select the folder that contains the decal subfolders.
3. Optionally name it — otherwise the folder name is used.

MatricX validates the folder and tells you if there is nothing usable inside.

Expected folder layout

Removing a library

Click ✕ on the library header, or beside any entry in Preferences. Only the reference is removed — nothing is deleted from disk. The bundled library cannot be removed.

SECTION 19

Trim Sheets

Applying a trim

1. Enter Edit Mode and select the faces that should receive the trim.
2. Open Decals → Trims, pick a sheet, then a trim region.
3. Set UV Fit and Trim Material.
4. Click Apply Trim to Selected Faces.
5. Refine with Live Trim Adjustment: Move, Rotate, Scale — or the Trim pie, Ctrl+Shift+T.

Trim sheet folder format

A sheet folder is identified by a data.json with a resolution pair and a trims list; each trim has coords and dimensions in 0–1 UV space.

SECTION 20

Viewport Workspace

Fast, disposable colour for blockout and modelling — parts stay readable long before look development starts.

• Live Viewport Color — set Color, Metallic and Roughness, then Apply to Selection. The controls then edit that material live; selecting another viewport-coloured object syncs the panel. The button beside Apply to Selection is Separate Material: the mesh keeps its look but stops sharing the material.
• Quick Swatches — Clay, Dark, Light, Rubber Black, Metal Gray, Accent Red, Accent Blue, Glass Cyan. Use Material View switches viewports to Material Preview so the colours show.
• Modeling Helpers — Move Collection, New Collection, and Random Viewport Color (a different colour per selected mesh).
• Linked recolouring NEW — recolouring one mesh recolours every mesh sharing its viewport material.

SECTION 21 · NEW IN 2.1

Radial Pie Menus

Three radial menus put the common actions under your cursor. Each can be switched on or off in Preferences.

A shortcut conflicts with another add-on? Turn the pie off in Preferences, or rebind it under Preferences → Keymap.

SECTION 22

Preferences

Edit → Preferences → Add-ons (or Get Extensions) → MatricX PRO.

• External Asset Pack — the folder, Locate Asset Pack, Open, and a live status line.
• MatricX Decals & Trims — decal and trim counts, pie shortcut toggles, Refresh Libraries.
• Additional Libraries — every library you added, with a ✕ to remove it. A missing folder is flagged but stays listed so you can clear it.
• Updates and support — official Eidos Edge links.

Cross-platform

One build runs on Windows, macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux. Paths use no platform-specific separators and tolerate differences in capitalisation, so projects move between systems.

SECTION 23

Rendering & Performance

Edge Wear needs Cycles

Edge Wear finds edges with Bevel nodes, which only Cycles evaluates. It does not show in EEVEE or in the Material Preview viewport; the layer card says so when that applies. Edge Damage, Chip Damaged and the other types work in both engines.

Keep it fast

• Tiling: leave it on Auto. Fast and High cost more render time on every object using the material.
• Layer count: a few restrained layers usually look better and render faster than many strong ones. Hide layers with their checkbox to compare.
• Heavier materials: some procedural materials, such as Camo 1–4, are more expensive to render in Cycles than the rest of the collection. Use lower samples while you iterate.
• Paint masks add no render cost beyond the layer itself; mesh density only affects painting detail.

Glass

Tinted Glass and Scope Glass are transmissive with a clear coat in Cycles; lowering Clarity below 1 adds a milky haze. In EEVEE they stay see-through without turning on scene raytracing.

SECTION 24

Recommended Workflows

SECTION 25

Troubleshooting

"Asset pack not connected"

Click Locate Asset Pack and select the MatricX_Assets_2.1.0 folder (Section 05). Until a pack is connected, the panel's "Looked in" line shows a default location inside the add-on folder — that is a placeholder, not a sign your selection was ignored.

"This is a 2.0.x asset pack"

You selected an older pack. MatricX PRO 2.1.0 needs MatricX_Assets_2.1.0.zip: download it, extract it, and select the new folder. The old pack is not changed.

The Material Collection shows no thumbnails

In 2.1 the thumbnails live in the asset pack. Connect the pack.

Linux / Flatpak: the pack is not found

Extract the pack in your home directory (not inside .var) and use Locate Asset Pack.

Windows: the decal browser is empty

The pack is probably in a folder with a very long path. Move it somewhere short, such as D:\Assets\, and locate it again.

Edge Wear does not show

It renders in Cycles only — not in EEVEE or Material Preview (Section 23).

An imperfection covers far too much

Lower Opacity first, then Amount. Switch to Mask view to see exactly what the mask does.

Add Layer is missing a type

The list follows what the material supports (Section 14). Plain glass, Fabric, Emission and Custom offer none.

My 2.0 Scratch Paint looks different

2.1 uses a new pattern (Section 03). Adjust Amount and Scale.

Decals in an old scene have no images

Their images live in your 2.0 pack folder. Keep it in its original location.

Painting says another layer is being painted

Click Finish That Session, then start again on the layer you want.

My paint mask is blocky

Masks are vertex-based. Subdivide where you need finer control.

A fabric looks flat

Fabrics need a UV map. Click Create UV Map when MatricX warns you.

A decal appears twice

Refresh libraries and check the same folder is not added twice. Decals are de-duplicated by uuid.

A pie shortcut conflicts with another add-on

Turn the pie off in Preferences, or rebind it under Preferences → Keymap.

SECTION 26

Support

Use the official Eidos Edge links in MatricX Preferences for support, updates and tutorials, or visit the Support page to report a bug or send feedback.

When reporting a problem, include:

• Blender version and operating system.
• MatricX PRO version, and whether you installed the add-on or the extension.
• Whether the asset pack is connected — Preferences shows the status.
• A screenshot or short recording.
• A minimal .blend where possible.
• The exact steps to reproduce it.