Geometry group

Display All Triangle Edges

When on, all triangle edges are displayed in shaded viewports. When off, triangle edges are not displayed. Default=on.

Turning off this option can improve viewport appearance, but at a cost of display performance.

Use Cached D3DXMeshes

When on, enables 3ds Max to use custom driver code to render smoothly shaded objects. Typically this is much faster than using standard Direct3D code, but has an effect only when the driver has hardware-specific custom code. Default=on.

Use Wireframe Faces

When on, makes wireframe display accessible to hardware acceleration. Default=on.

This option is intended to allow display-card manufacturers to accelerate 3ds Max wireframe displays in a way that is specific to the underlying display hardware. Check with your display-card manufacturer to see if enabling this option will yield faster wireframe rendering with your display card.

Use Triangle Strips

Strips all geometric data out before sending it to the driver. In some cases, such as when topology is constantly changed, the time taken to strip the geometry can cause a slowdown instead. In such cases, turn off this option. Otherwise, leave it on for speed. Default=on.

This option has one subordinate option:

• For Wireframe ObjectsWhen on, uses triangle strips for wireframe objects. Default=off.

Window Updates group

Redraw Scene On Window Expose

Redraws the whole scene when a dialog over the viewports is moved, resulting in smoother dragging of dialogs such as the Material Editor or Track View. However, redrawing takes some time. Default=on.

If the display becomes messy or "corrupted," turn this option on and then redraw viewports by choosing Views Redraw All Views (the default keyboard shortcut for this is the ` (accent grave) key, on the left side of the 1 key).

This option has two subordinate options. How you should set them depends on how the display card handles its back buffer, which is used for refreshing the screen. Turn on one or the other, as appropriate.

• Redraw In Maximized ViewportIf, after updating the screen, the display card destroys the back buffer only when there's a single viewport, turn on this sub-option. The Direct3D driver redraws the scene when a single viewport is visible, but doesn't have to redraw when multiple viewports are visible. Default=off.
• Redraw In UnMaximized ViewportsIf, after updating the screen, the display card destroys the back buffer when multiple viewports are visible, turn on this sub-option. Default=off.

Allow Dual Plane Support

Uses the front/back plane system when redrawing the viewport. The selected object is manipulated in the front plane and is redrawn, while other objects remain on the back plane and are not redrawn. This default setting provides the fastest redraws under normal circumstances. If your assigned display driver doesn't support dual planes, this option is not available.

Turn off this setting to improve redraw speed if you are rotating the whole scene or moving a camera through the scene (usually situations in which the whole viewport needs to be redrawn anyway).

Use Incremental Scene Updates

Redraws only those scene objects that have changed, or that intersect a region changed by another moving object. When off, the entire scene is redrawn for each new frame. Default=on.

If the display becomes messy or "corrupted" as a result of incremental updates, turn this option off and then redraw viewports by choosing Views Redraw All Views (the default keyboard shortcut for this is 1 on the numeric keypad).

Background Texture Size group

128, 256, 512, 1024

Unlike the software display driver, which uses bitmaps to display viewport backgrounds directly, the Direct3D driver uses a texture-mapped background rectangle. This allows for smoother zooms and pans in orthographic views and can take less memory than the direct bitmap method. However, background bitmap resolution can be lost. Increase the resolution if you're using a maximized viewport to digitize.

Match Bitmap Size as Closely as Possible

Displays background at full resolution. This allows the viewport to behave like the Rendered Frame Window , in regards to zoom and pan. Default=off.

Download Texture Size group

64, 128, 256, 512

Lets you choose the size of the texture map that's downloaded to the driver for texture-mapped scene objects. Larger maps look better, but use more display card memory. Default=256.

NoteWhen Match Bitmap Size As Closely as Possible is on, these buttons are overridden, however they are still available. The value is still used when procedural textures are converted to bitmaps for viewport texture display.

Match Bitmap Size as Closely as Possible

To allow the viewport to show actual texture resolutions, bitmaps are individually resized before they are downloaded to the driver. This means that small bitmaps don’t get overexpanded and large bitmaps retain their resolution (but potentially use a lot more video RAM).

NoteBitmaps can be no larger than 4000 x 4000 pixels (or they will be scaled down to this size) and no smaller than 32 x 32 (or they will be scaled up to this size). Default=off.

Texel Lookup group

Specifies whether to use the nearest pixel, to linearly interpolate the pixel value from the four closest texels, or to use anisotropic filtering. Using the nearest pixel is faster, but using texels produces a higher-quality display. The Anisotropic filter compensates for the distortion caused by the difference in angle between the texture polygon and the plane of the screen. Default=Nearest.

MipMap Lookup Group

Specifies whether to use one version of the texture map (None) or to interpolate between a pyramid of progressively smaller maps. With Nearest chosen, the texel lookup is done on the map level nearest the ideal one, and with Linear, the texel values from the two closest map levels are interpolated. Default=None.