Data Tab

The Data Tab is used to configure where the server should load a library file from and save to, displays details about the loaded library file, settings to change when the library is saved and other functionality.

Library Location

This section contains a read-only text box of where the loaded library file is, a pop-out context menu button at the end of the text box containing several functions and the size of the library file.

The popout context menu functions work as follows:

• Open Location: Opens File Explorer at the folder location of the library file
• Open: Opens/loads a different material library file into the server. Any connected clients will immediately be updated to the new material library.
• Move: Moves the current library file to a different location
• Import: Imports another material library into the current library. Any connected clients will immediately be updated to the new material library.
• Reset: Resets the library to a default library with one group, “Default”, and one material, “Default”. Any connected clients will immediately be updated to the default material library.

Library Details

Library Details has read-only fields containing information about the library such as the number of groups, materials, textures, thumbnails, and warning indicators which are described in the Tools section.

Persistence

This section configures the persistence setting for when to save the library to disk so that if the server crashes, library changes are not lost.

Saving to disk every time a change is made to the library and with multiple users making changes can result in degraded performance across the board for all users. Instead a timer is used to check and make sure the server has been idled (no library changes made) for a set duration. When the timer elapses and no changes to the library have been made, the library is saved; however, if there are changes being made to the library then the timer is reset.

The user can enter in a custom duration in minutes or select one of the preset durations. The default value is 10 minutes.

Tools

The Tool section contains tools to help with Material Library optimization.

Run All

Runs all the tools in sequence.

Scan and Repair

Scans and repairs the library data by finding invalid references, identifiers and any texture or thumbnail elements that are orphaned or have duplicates. Orphaned elements are textures or thumbnails that no longer have a matching Material ID in the library and duplicate elements are where there are more than one elements with the same name which can result in the wrong texture or thumbnail displayed to the user.

There is a warning icon indicator (with a tooltip) for the Textures and Thumbnails readouts in the Library Details section, to let the user know that the library needs optimizing:

There should never be more textures or thumbnails than there are materials and the texture and thumbnail counts should match.

Remove Empty Groups

Removes all empty groups except sub-groups that contain materials.

Generate Thumbnails

Generates the thumbnail cache. Reduces large texture sizes to more manageable sizes used for presenting the texture to the user in the Material Library Editor and quicker generation of texture strips on material items.

The thumbnail count could be zero if all textures are smaller than the maximum thumbnail size.

Optimize Material Colors

Update material colors to the dominant color of their textures, if they have one.