what does materials mean

[ZanderWoods]

When buying items in SL it say with materials or (non-materials)  What does materials mean?

[Lindal Kidd]

"Materials" is the new, more realistic texturing tools provided in the latest viewers.  You can assign a texture map for shininess and for bump mapping.  Objects which advertise they are made with "materials" will look a lot better than objects textured without the new features.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Zander,

In the last year or so, Linden Lab added new functionality to the display of textures on surfaces in Second Life. These improvements afford a more realistic look. If you're purchasing something like a texture pack, the appearance of the word "materials" in the ad connotes that the textures you'll get were constructed using that new functionality. While the use of such textures may improve the look of an object, it may also increase the Land Impact, as any use of material textures, even on simple prim objects, forces calculation of land impact according to the new mesh weighting system.

Legacy avatar clothing layers do not support materials, so the use of materials in clothing attachments is problematic, as the attachments will react to lighting differently than the clothing layers. This has always been the case to some extent, but would be even more noticable using material textures.

Here's more reading for you...

http://www.manufato.com/?p=902

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Material_Data