Materials system
Materials system is an advanced type of texture mapping that allows for objects in video games to simulate different types of materials in real life. This makes it so that the texture not only contains graphical data, but references for sound data and physics data (such as density). For example, if a texture makes an object look like wood, it will sound like wood(if something hits it or its scraped along a surface), break like wood, and even float like wood. If it was made of metal, it will sound like metal, dent like metal, and sink like metal. This allows more flexibility when making objects in games.
A materials system allows a designer to think about objects in a different way. Instead of the object just being a model with a texture applied to it, the object, or part of the object, is made up of a material.
Currently there are these major materials: wood, concrete (or stone), metal, glass, dirt, water, and cloth (such as carpeting).