Rendering menu > Material Editor > Type button > Material/Map Browser > In Show group, turn off Maps. > Material types are listed.
Materials create greater realism in a scene. A material describes how an object reflects or transmits light. You assign materials to individual objects or selection sets; a single scene can contain many different materials.
Different materials have different uses.
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Architectural material is the default material. It provides a physically accurate material. It is especially intended for use with radiosity solutions.
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Raytrace material can create fully raytraced reflections and refractions. It also supports fog, color density, translucency, fluorescence, and other special effects.
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mental ray materials are provided for use with the mental ray renderer.
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Matte/Shadow material is specifically for making an object into a matte object that reveals the current environment map. A matte object is effectively invisible in the scene, but it can receive shadows cast onto it from other objects.
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Shell material is for storing and viewing rendered textures.
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Advanced Lighting Override material is used to fine-tune the effects of a material on radiosity solutions. This material is not required for calculating advanced lighting, but it can help improve the result.
Note: The Architectural material has its own controls for adjusting advanced lighting.
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Lightscape material helps support import and export of data from the Lightscape product.
Other material types fall into the category of Compound materials.
Compound materials combine other materials in some way.
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Blend material mixes two materials on a single side of a surface.
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Composite material mixes up to 10 materials, using additive colors, subtractive colors, or opacity mixing.
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Double-Sided material lets you assign different materials to the front and back faces of an object.
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Multi/Sub-Object material uses the sub-object level to assign multiple materials to a single object, based on material ID values.
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Shellac material superimposes one material on another using additive composition.
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Top/Bottom material lets you assign different materials to the top and bottom of faces of an object.
To get a material:
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Click Get Material on the Material Editor toolbar.
The Material/Map Browser is displayed.
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Double-click a material type (not a map type) in the list, or drag the material to a sample slot.
To change a material type:
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At the level of a material, click the Type button below the Material Editor toolbar.
A modal Material/Map Browser is displayed. If you were at a material when you clicked Type, the Browser lists only materials (if you were at a map, it lists only maps).
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Choose a material from the list, and then click OK.
If you choose a compound material, a Replace Material dialog is displayed. This dialog lets you choose whether to keep or discard the original material.
The Material Editor now displays controls for the new material.