What is the difference between a material and a texture in Unity?
In Unity, a material is a type of asset that defines how a 3D object or surface should be rendered, including its shading, coloring, and visual properties. A texture, on the other hand, is an image that is applied to the surface of a 3D object or material to provide visual detail.
A material in Unity is a combination of one or more textures, along with other visual properties such as color, transparency, and reflectivity. When applied to a 3D object, a material determines how light interacts with the surface of the object, based on its visual properties. For example, a material can define whether an object appears shiny, matte, metallic, or transparent.
Textures, on the other hand, are images that are applied to the surface of a 3D object or material to provide visual detail such as bumps, scratches, and patterns. Textures can be created in a variety of ways, including by painting them by hand, by capturing them from photographs, or by generating them procedurally using software. Once a texture is created, it can be applied to a material and mapped onto the surface of a 3D object using UV mapping techniques.
