🎨 Surfaces and Textures#

Genesis provides material and texture configuration for rendering.

Surface Types#

Surface	Description
`Rough`	Matte, non-reflective (roughness=1.0)
`Smooth`	Polished plastic (roughness=0.1)
`Reflective`	Highly reflective (roughness=0.01)
`Glass`	Transparent with refraction
`Metal`	Metallic surfaces (Iron, Gold, etc.)
`Water`	Water-like surface
`Emission`	Light-emitting surface

Basic Usage#

import genesis as gs

scene.add_entity(
    morph=gs.morphs.Sphere(pos=(0, 0, 1), radius=0.5),
    surface=gs.surfaces.Smooth(color=(0.8, 0.2, 0.2)),
)

Surface Properties#

gs.surfaces.Smooth(
    color=(1.0, 1.0, 1.0),    # RGB (0-1)
    roughness=0.1,            # 0=mirror, 1=matte
    metallic=0.0,             # 0=dielectric, 1=metal
    opacity=1.0,              # Transparency
    emissive=(0.0, 0.0, 0.0), # Self-illumination
    ior=1.5,                  # Index of refraction
)

Metallic Surfaces#

# Predefined metals
gs.surfaces.Iron()
gs.surfaces.Gold()
gs.surfaces.Copper()
gs.surfaces.Aluminium()

# Custom metal
gs.surfaces.Metal(metal_type="gold", roughness=0.15)

Transparent Surfaces#

# Glass
gs.surfaces.Glass(
    color=(0.9, 0.9, 1.0, 0.7),  # RGBA
    roughness=0.1,
    ior=1.5,
)

# Water
gs.surfaces.Water()

Textures#

Color Texture#

gs.textures.ColorTexture(color=(1.0, 0.0, 0.0))

Image Texture#

gs.textures.ImageTexture(
    image_path="textures/checker.png",
    encoding="srgb",  # or "linear" for non-color data
)

Using Textures with Surfaces#

surface = gs.surfaces.Rough(
    diffuse_texture=gs.textures.ImageTexture(image_path="albedo.png"),
    roughness_texture=gs.textures.ImageTexture(image_path="roughness.png", encoding="linear"),
    normal_texture=gs.textures.ImageTexture(image_path="normal.png", encoding="linear"),
)

Visualization Modes#

# Particle visualization (for fluids)
gs.surfaces.Rough(color=(0.6, 0.8, 1.0), vis_mode="particle")

# Surface reconstruction
gs.surfaces.Glass(color=(0.7, 0.85, 1.0, 0.7), vis_mode="recon")

Environment Maps (Raytracer)#

scene = gs.Scene(
    renderer=gs.renderers.RayTracer(
        env_surface=gs.surfaces.Emission(
            emissive_texture=gs.textures.ImageTexture(image_path="hdri.hdr")
        ),
        env_radius=15.0,
    )
)

What’s Next#

Visualization - viewer controls, camera placement, and rendering backends
USD Import - loading Universal Scene Description assets into Genesis