A material defines how a surface reflects light. A material has two components: an emissive property (whether it emits light) and a specular property, whose brightness is determined by a power setting. The value of the power determines the sharpness of the reflected highlights, with a value of 5 giving a metallic appearance and higher values giving a more plastic appearance.
An application can control the emission of a material by using the IDirect3DRMMaterial::GetEmissive and IDirect3DRMMaterial::SetEmissive methods, the specular component by using the IDirect3DRMMaterial::GetSpecular and IDirect3DRMMaterial::SetSpecular methods, and the power by using the IDirect3DRMMaterial::GetPower and IDirect3DRMMaterial::SetPower methods.