In Unity, what is a material used for?

A material in Unity plays a crucial role in defining the visual appearance of game objects. It achieves this by holding information about shaders and textures, which together determine how the object interacts with light and how it appears to players. Shaders are programs that run on the GPU and dictate how the surface of an object is rendered, influencing characteristics such as color, texture, and visual effects. Textures are images applied to an object's surface to add detail and realism.

This approach allows artists and developers to customize the look of game objects without altering their geometric structure, enabling a wide variety of visual effects that can enhance the overall player experience.