Visual Style group

[visual style drop-down list]

Chooses the visual style of viewports.

• Realistic(The default.) Textures geometry realistically with high-quality shading and lighting.
  

  Realistic viewport

• ShadedSmoothly shades geometry using Phong shading.
  

  Shaded viewport

• Consistent ColorsShades geometry with "raw" color, disregarding the lighting. Shadows are available.
  

  Consistent Colors

• Hidden LineHides faces and vertices whose normals point away from the viewpoint, as well as any parts of objects that are obscured by closer objects. Shadows are available.
  

  Hidden Line display

• WireframeDisplays geometry in wireframe mode.
• Bounding BoxDisplays only the edges of each object's bounding box.
• _____

  The styles that apear below the horizontal rule are non-photorealistic styles.

Edged Faces

When on, viewports show face edges. Default=off.

Textures

When on, viewports show texture maps. Default=on.

Transparency

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

Use Environment Background Color

When on, displays the viewport using the environment background color. Default=off.

This option does not support background environment maps.

Lighting And Shadows group

Controls how lights are displayed in viewports other than wireframe views.

The default setting and availability of these controls depend on the visual style you have chosen.

• Default Lights(The default.) Illuminates the viewport using the default lights. If no lights exist in the scene, the default lighting is used automatically, even when Scene Lights is chosen.

  Sometimes the lighting you create in the scene can make objects difficult to see in the viewport. The default lighting displays the objects with even illumination. You can use either one or two lights. By default, 3ds Max uses one default light.

  • 1 LightProvides an over-the-shoulder light with 20% faster redraws at the expense of less natural illumination.
    

    A single default light is linked to the camera and moves when you change your viewport point of view.

  • 2 Lights(The default.) Provides more natural illumination, but slower viewport performance.
    

    Two default lights are placed opposite to each other.

    The key light, A, is in front of the object, on the upper-left side, while the fill light, B, is behind on the lower-right side.

• Scene LightsIlluminates the viewport using light objects in the scene.

Highlights

When on, viewports include highlights that come from the lighting. Default=on.

Auto Display Selected Lights

When on, light from selected lights is automatically displayed in shaded viewports. Default=off.

Some default settings and the availability of these controls depend on the visual style you have chosen.

Lighting & Shadows Quality

Sets the style of lighting used to generate shadows, and the kind of shadows generated. Range: From Point Lights/Hard Shadows to 16.0X - Very High Quality. If the setting is higher than Point Lights/Soft-Edged Shadows, area lights are taken into account. Default = Point Lights/Hard Shadows.

Shadows

When on, the scene is rendered with shadows.

• Intensity/FadeControls the intensity of shadows. The higher the value, the darker the shadows. Default=1.0.

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.

• Intensity/FadeControls the intensity of the AO effect. The higher the value, the darker the shadows. Default=1.0.
• RadiusDefines the radius, in 3ds Max units, within which the Nitrous driver looks for occluding objects. Larger values cover larger areas. Default=10.0.

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).

Selection group

Selection Brackets

When on, an object selected in a shaded viewport shows brackets at the corner of its bounding box. Default=on.

Keyboard shortcut: J

Display Selected with Edged Faces

When on, an object selected in a shaded viewport shows edged faces. Default=off.

Shade Selected Faces

When on, a face selected in a shaded viewport is shaded in semitransparent red. This makes it easier to see Face sub-object selections. Default=on.

Keyboard shortcut: F2

Shade Selected Objects

When on, an object selected in a shaded viewport is shaded in semitransparent red. Default=off.

Perspective User View group

This control applies only to Perspective viewports.

Field Of View

Sets the field of view angle for a Perspective viewport. Default=45.0 degrees.

TipFor a Camera viewport, you can change the field of view on the Modify panel.

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Disable View

Disables the active viewport. While it is active, a disabled viewport behaves like any other viewport. However, when you change the scene in another viewport, the view in the disabled viewport does not change until the next time you activate it. Default=off.

Use this option to speed up screen redraws when you are working on complex geometry.

Viewport Clipping

When on, interactively sets a near and far range for viewport display. Two arrows at the edge of the viewport allow you to determine where the clipping occurs. Tick marks correspond to the extents of the viewport, the lower tick is the near clipping plane, and the upper tick sets the far clipping plane. This affects only the viewport display; it does not affect renderings. Default=off.

Hardware Shaders Cache Folder

Manages the location of hardware shaders on your computer.

• [cache folder path]

  Displays the path of the folder used to save hardware shaders.

  The default location is in your user settings. The path depends on the operating system you are using:

  • Windows XP:

    \documents and settings\<username>\local settings\application data\autodesk\3dsmax\2012 - 32bit\enu\plugcfg\ (or "3dsmaxdesign" for 3ds Max Design, “64bit” for the 64-bit version)

  • Vista or Windows 7:

    \users\<username>\appdata\local\autodesk\3dsmax\2012 - 32bit\enu\plugcfg\ (or "3dsmaxdesign" for 3ds Max Design, “64bit” for the 64-bit version)

• Open Configure System PathsClick to display the Configure System Paths dialog, which lets you choose an alternate location for saving hardware shaders.

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Apply to All Views

Click to apply the current Visual Style settings to all viewports.

Apply to Active View

Click to apply the current Visual Style settings to the active view only.