A material's components describe its visual and optical properties. The components in the Architectural material are based on physical qualities; for example, diffuse color, shininess, transparency, and so on. The components in a Standard material include color components, highlight controls, self-illumination, and opacity. Like the Standard material, the Raytrace material uses a nonphysical model to describe surfaces.

Standard and Raytrace material components vary depending on which shader you use.

You can assign maps to most components, including color components such as Diffuse, and value components such as Transparency or Opacity. Maps can increase the complexity and realism of the material's appearance.