Visual Style group

Rendering Level

Choose the style of rendering. The choices include options that are not photorealistic.

• Realistic(The default.)
• Shaded
• Consistent Colors
• Hidden Line
• Wireframe

These are rendered versions of Nitrous viewport display options: See Visual Style group.

• Ink
• Color Ink
• Acrylic
• Tech
• Graphite
• Color Pencil
• Pastel

These are the non-photorealistic rendering styles: See Non-Photorealistic Styles.

Edged Faces

When on, the rendering shows face edges. Default=off.

Textures

When on, the rendering shows texture maps. Default=off.

Transparency

When on, objects with transparent materials are rendered as transparent. Default=on.

Lighting group

Illuminate with

Choose how the rendering is illuminated: with Scene Lights or Default Lights (that is, viewport lighting). Default = Scene Lights.

• HighlightsWhen on, the rendering includes highlights that come from the lighting. Default=off.

Indirect Illumination

When on, enables indirect illumination. Indirect illumination improves the quality of lighting by taking into account bounced light. When indirect illumination is enabled, the controls for it become available. Default=off.

• Multiplier
• Sample Distribution Area
• Decay
• Enable Indirect Lighting Shadows

Shadows group

Shadows

When on, the scene is rendered with shadows. Default=on.

• Intensity/FadeControls the intensity of shadows. The higher the value, the darker the shadows.
• Soft Shadows PrecisionScales the sampling value of area lights in the scene. Range: No Area Shadows – 16X - Very High Quality. Default = 1X - Default.
  TipTo reset this slider to its default value, right-click the slider.

Ambient Occlusion

When on, enables ambient occlusion (AO). AO improves shadow quality by taking into account the proximity of objects. When AO is enabled, the controls for it become available. Default=off.

• Intensity/FadeControls the intensity of the AO effect. The higher the value, the darker the shadows.
• RadiusDefines the radius, in 3ds Max units, within which the Quicksilver renderer looks for occluding objects. Larger values cover larger areas.

NoteAmbient occlusion is based on geometry, so when it displays faceted objects, shadows can appear at the edges of the facets even when the Smooth option (available for many primitives) is turned on. The Smooth option interpolates normals to give the illusion of smoothness, but it doesn't affect geometry. (Direct3D viewports reduce this effect by averaging the AO shadows, which become more even but less accurate.) To reduce the "streaking" effect, increase the number of segments in the geometry and don't rely on the Smooth option.

For more information about ambient occlusion, see Built-in Ambient Occlusion (the version of AO used by the Architecture & Design Material has somewhat different controls).