Patent ID: 8667404

Claim:
A method for generating a user interface within a graphics application for a set of materials, wherein each material includes a material definition and is capable of being applied to a geometry in a graphics scene when performing a rendering operation, the method comprising: obtaining configuration information associated with an environment for a computer system; determining that a first set of materials is associated with the configuration information, wherein each material represents a texture map related to a selected surface and comprises a definition that specifies a set of editable material parameters for the material, one or more implementation objects, wherein each implementation object is configured to translate the set of material parameters for the material into a first format recognized by a different rendering engine, and graphical user interface construction information that is used to configure the graphical user interface for the material, and wherein each editable material parameter specifies a characteristic of the material to use in the rendering operation in which the material is applied to the geometry; selecting the first set of materials to be displayed in a graphical user interface; and displaying the graphical user interface to an end-user.