Table of Contents

Class Decal

Node that projects a texture onto a MeshInstance3D.

Inheritance
Decal

Remarks

Decals are used to project a texture onto a Mesh in the scene. Use Decals to add detail to a scene without affecting the underlying Mesh. They are often used to add weathering to building, add dirt or mud to the ground, or add variety to props. Decals can be moved at any time, making them suitable for things like blob shadows or laser sight dots.

They are made of an AABB and a group of Texture2Ds specifying Color, normal, ORM (ambient occlusion, roughness, metallic), and emission. Decals are projected within their AABB so altering the orientation of the Decal affects the direction in which they are projected. By default, Decals are projected down (i.e. from positive Y to negative Y).

The Texture2Ds associated with the Decal are automatically stored in a texture atlas which is used for drawing the decals so all decals can be drawn at once. Godot uses clustered decals, meaning they are stored in cluster data and drawn when the mesh is drawn, they are not drawn as a post-processing effect after.

Note: Decals cannot affect an underlying material's transparency, regardless of its transparency mode (alpha blend, alpha scissor, alpha hash, opaque pre-pass). This means translucent or transparent areas of a material will remain translucent or transparent even if an opaque decal is applied on them.

Note: Decals are only supported in the Forward+ and Mobile rendering methods, not Compatibility. When using the Mobile rendering method, only 8 decals can be displayed on each mesh resource. Attempting to display more than 8 decals on a single mesh resource will result in decals flickering in and out as the camera moves.

Note: When using the Mobile rendering method, decals will only correctly affect meshes whose visibility AABB intersects with the decal's AABB. If using a shader to deform the mesh in a way that makes it go outside its AABB, extra_cull_margin must be increased on the mesh. Otherwise, the decal may not be visible on the mesh.

Properties

albedo_mix

Blends the albedo Color of the decal with albedo Color of the underlying mesh. This can be set to 0.0 to create a decal that only affects normal or ORM. In this case, an albedo texture is still required as its alpha channel will determine where the normal and ORM will be overridden. See also modulate.

var albedo_mix : float = 1.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_albedo_mix(float value)
  • float get_albedo_mix

cull_mask

Specifies which layers this decal will project on. By default, Decals affect all layers. This is used so you can specify which types of objects receive the Decal and which do not. This is especially useful so you can ensure that dynamic objects don't accidentally receive a Decal intended for the terrain under them.

var cull_mask : int = 1048575

Property Value

int

Remarks

  • void set_cull_mask(int value)
  • int get_cull_mask

distance_fade_begin

The distance from the camera at which the Decal begins to fade away (in 3D units).

var distance_fade_begin : float = 40.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_distance_fade_begin(float value)
  • float get_distance_fade_begin

distance_fade_enabled

If true, decals will smoothly fade away when far from the active Camera3D starting at distance_fade_begin. The Decal will fade out over distance_fade_begin + distance_fade_length, after which it will be culled and not sent to the shader at all. Use this to reduce the number of active Decals in a scene and thus improve performance.

var distance_fade_enabled : bool = false

Property Value

bool

Remarks

  • void set_enable_distance_fade(bool value)
  • bool is_distance_fade_enabled

distance_fade_length

The distance over which the Decal fades (in 3D units). The Decal becomes slowly more transparent over this distance and is completely invisible at the end. Higher values result in a smoother fade-out transition, which is more suited when the camera moves fast.

var distance_fade_length : float = 10.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_distance_fade_length(float value)
  • float get_distance_fade_length

emission_energy

Energy multiplier for the emission texture. This will make the decal emit light at a higher or lower intensity, independently of the albedo color. See also modulate.

var emission_energy : float = 1.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_emission_energy(float value)
  • float get_emission_energy

lower_fade

Sets the curve over which the decal will fade as the surface gets further from the center of the AABB. Only positive values are valid (negative values will be clamped to 0.0). See also upper_fade.

var lower_fade : float = 0.3

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_lower_fade(float value)
  • float get_lower_fade

modulate

Changes the Color of the Decal by multiplying the albedo and emission colors with this value. The alpha component is only taken into account when multiplying the albedo color, not the emission color. See also emission_energy and albedo_mix to change the emission and albedo intensity independently of each other.

var modulate : Color = Color(1, 1, 1, 1)

Property Value

Color

Remarks

  • void set_modulate(Color value)
  • Color get_modulate

normal_fade

Fades the Decal if the angle between the Decal's AABB and the target surface becomes too large. A value of 0 projects the Decal regardless of angle, a value of 1 limits the Decal to surfaces that are nearly perpendicular.

Note: Setting normal_fade to a value greater than 0.0 has a small performance cost due to the added normal angle computations.

var normal_fade : float = 0.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_normal_fade(float value)
  • float get_normal_fade

size

Sets the size of the AABB used by the decal. All dimensions must be set to a value greater than zero (they will be clamped to 0.001 if this is not the case). The AABB goes from -size/2 to size/2.

Note: To improve culling efficiency of "hard surface" decals, set their upper_fade and lower_fade to 0.0 and set the Y component of the size as low as possible. This will reduce the decals' AABB size without affecting their appearance.

var size : Vector3 = Vector3(2, 2, 2)

Property Value

Vector3

Remarks

texture_albedo

Texture2D with the base Color of the Decal. Either this or the texture_emission must be set for the Decal to be visible. Use the alpha channel like a mask to smoothly blend the edges of the decal with the underlying object.

Note: Unlike BaseMaterial3D whose filter mode can be adjusted on a per-material basis, the filter mode for Decal textures is set globally with rendering/textures/decals/filter.

var texture_albedo : Texture2D

Property Value

Texture2D

Remarks

texture_emission

Texture2D with the emission Color of the Decal. Either this or the texture_albedo must be set for the Decal to be visible. Use the alpha channel like a mask to smoothly blend the edges of the decal with the underlying object.

Note: Unlike BaseMaterial3D whose filter mode can be adjusted on a per-material basis, the filter mode for Decal textures is set globally with rendering/textures/decals/filter.

var texture_emission : Texture2D

Property Value

Texture2D

Remarks

texture_normal

Texture2D with the per-pixel normal map for the decal. Use this to add extra detail to decals.

Note: Unlike BaseMaterial3D whose filter mode can be adjusted on a per-material basis, the filter mode for Decal textures is set globally with rendering/textures/decals/filter.

Note: Setting this texture alone will not result in a visible decal, as texture_albedo must also be set. To create a normal-only decal, load an albedo texture into texture_albedo and set albedo_mix to 0.0. The albedo texture's alpha channel will be used to determine where the underlying surface's normal map should be overridden (and its intensity).

var texture_normal : Texture2D

Property Value

Texture2D

Remarks

texture_orm

Texture2D storing ambient occlusion, roughness, and metallic for the decal. Use this to add extra detail to decals.

Note: Unlike BaseMaterial3D whose filter mode can be adjusted on a per-material basis, the filter mode for Decal textures is set globally with rendering/textures/decals/filter.

Note: Setting this texture alone will not result in a visible decal, as texture_albedo must also be set. To create an ORM-only decal, load an albedo texture into texture_albedo and set albedo_mix to 0.0. The albedo texture's alpha channel will be used to determine where the underlying surface's ORM map should be overridden (and its intensity).

var texture_orm : Texture2D

Property Value

Texture2D

Remarks

upper_fade

Sets the curve over which the decal will fade as the surface gets further from the center of the AABB. Only positive values are valid (negative values will be clamped to 0.0). See also lower_fade.

var upper_fade : float = 0.3

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_upper_fade(float value)
  • float get_upper_fade

Methods

get_texture(int)

Qualifiers: const

Returns the Texture2D associated with the specified DecalTexture. This is a convenience method, in most cases you should access the texture directly.

For example, instead of albedo_tex = $Decal.get_texture(Decal.TEXTURE_ALBEDO), use albedo_tex = $Decal.texture_albedo.

One case where this is better than accessing the texture directly is when you want to copy one Decal's textures to another. For example:

for i in Decal.TEXTURE_MAX:
    $NewDecal.set_texture(i, $OldDecal.get_texture(i))


Texture2D get_texture(int type)

Parameters

type int

set_texture(int, Texture2D)

Sets the Texture2D associated with the specified DecalTexture. This is a convenience method, in most cases you should access the texture directly.

For example, instead of $Decal.set_texture(Decal.TEXTURE_ALBEDO, albedo_tex), use $Decal.texture_albedo = albedo_tex.

One case where this is better than accessing the texture directly is when you want to copy one Decal's textures to another. For example:

for i in Decal.TEXTURE_MAX:
    $NewDecal.set_texture(i, $OldDecal.get_texture(i))


void set_texture(int type, Texture2D texture)

Parameters

type int
texture Texture2D