# Using a Satellite Material

The satellite material is a global materials that is applied on top of your Instance if the camera is far enough from the terrain. It is especially useful to keep a terrain looking crisp from far away.

To enable it, simply check the option in Global Settings.

<figure><img src="https://3751470283-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9KuznrlYB4kqrVq5qJMd%2Fuploads%2FawExHaKns4P4y63gyiG7%2Fsat2.png?alt=media&#x26;token=8229f06a-ec15-44c8-b8e9-36d5286fffc5" alt=""><figcaption><p>Satellite Material in action, starting from a distance of 75 000.</p></figcaption></figure>

<table><thead><tr><th width="150" align="right">Option</th><th width="571.4285714285713"> </th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="right">Start Distance</td><td>At which point the satellite material starts to appear.</td></tr><tr><td align="right">Landscape Resolution</td><td><strong>Samples the satellite material at the correct terrain resolution so that it can fit 1:1 on the terrain.</strong> <br>You can click on your landscape and check the "Overall Resolution (Verts)" line on the details to see which values to enter.<br><br>If your terrain is square and its scale hasn't been changed/is not using World Partition, you can click the wand button to automatically get that value.</td></tr><tr><td align="right">Min/Max Opacity</td><td>Min and Max opacity of the Satellite Map.</td></tr></tbody></table>

The rest of the options are the same as the regular materials, featuring :&#x20;

* ORM w/ Support for uniform values (no Individual Textures)&#x20;
* Color
* Normal w/ Invert and Normal Strength
* Specular based on color w/ Channel selection.&#x20;

The Satellite Material is sampled on top of everything else, so the landscape can still be cached while keeping the satellite material.&#x20;

{% hint style="info" %}
This can also be useful for having a secondary material with much lower UV scale for far away detail without having to exclude layers from caching, for example.
{% endhint %}