Shade surfaces with a render preview of their rendered appearance
 
 
 

Shade surfaces with a close approximation of their rendered appearance, allowing you to preview and edit the look of the rendered scene.

Switch between wireframe and a render preview

Quickly create a ground shadow

  1. Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade .
  2. In the option window, turn on the Ground plane option.
  3. Among the new options now available, turn on Receive shadows.
  4. Click the Shade On button.

    The model is shaded and ground shadows are displayed. The ground is located at Z = 0 (in a Z up coordinate system, or Y = 0 in a Y up coordinate system). By default, the shadow is projected from a light source located 45 degrees to the right and above the model.

    NoteShadows are only displayed in the Perspective window.

You can also:

  1. Set Shadow position to either DIRECTLY ABOVE, 45 DEGREES RIGHT, or 45 DEGREES LEFT to change the position of the default light source.
  2. Adjust the value of the Shadow transparency slider (from 0.0, completely opaque, to 1.0, completely transparent).

    The shadows update each time an option is modified.

  3. Adjust the value of Plane height to change the position of the ground plane on which the shadow is projected.

Create a shadow from a user-defined light source

  1. In the WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade option box, set Shadow position to USER DEFINED.
  2. Create a new spot light or directional light using Render > Create Lights > Spot or Render > Create Lights > Directional .
  3. Use the manipulator to position the light and adjust its direction.

    The position and direction of the light is used to generate the ground shadow.

  4. Choose Render > Multi-lister > Lights to open the Light Editor.
  5. Double-click the light you just created to open the light parameter window.
  6. In the Parameter window, click the Hardware (per vertex) tab, then turn on Hardware Shade Shadows in the Active Effects section.

    Only the light currently being edited throws shadows. All other lights are turned off automatically.

  7. In the Shadow Parameters section, adjust the Shadow Color slider if needed, or click the color swatch to select a new color.

    If you modify the orientation of the light source, the shadow updates interactively.

Reflect background environment

  1. Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade .
  2. In the option window, turn on the Reflect background option.
  3. Choose Render > Multi-lister > Shaders to open the Shader Editor.
  4. Double-click the DefaultShader to open its parameter window.
  5. In the Parameter window, click the Hardware (per vertex) tab, and make sure that Refl. Backgnd is turned on and Reflectivity is not 0.0.
  6. Do one of the following:
    • Double-click a cube map environment at the top of the Visualize Control Panel
    • Use an existing cube map environment (File > Environment Browse in Multi-lister).
    • Create a cube map environment in the Multi-lister.
  7. Click the Shade On button in the Hardware Shade option box.

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