Add decals to material alternatives
Decals can be added to material alternatives.
Each alternative can show the same decal with different material
properties, positions, or decal textures. The order of decals on objects
can also be added to material alternatives.
- Apply and position decals and base materials
to the objects in your scene.
- Press A (or Scene
> Alternatives) to open the Alternatives
interface.
- Create a New Material Lineup.
- Select the decal grip and press the Add
Next Alternative button.
- Apply a new material to the
selected decal grip or adjust the decal texture (Shift+M), and Add
another Alternative.
- Click on the icon for each alternative
in the lineup to see the differences.
NoteEach alternative creates copies of your
decal for every object it is applied to. To avoid excessive amounts
of materials in the scene, optimize the objects in the scene as
much as possible before creating decal alternatives.
For more information on alternatives and lineups,
see Set up alternatives.
Optimize decal performance
Decals
use extensive system resources to be drawn in the scene, and can
affect the interactivity of scenes. To improve decal performance,
optimize the scene first (grouping objects and combining entities),
then apply decals to objects in the scene.
For more information
on combining, see
Combine and separate objects to improve frame rate.
- Decals applied to combined objects use
only a single decal for all surfaces that are combined together.
- Decals applied to grouped objects, or
multiple selected objects, create copies of the decal for every
object in the group or selection.
NoteRemove decals before
uncombining objects. If a combined object with a single decal is
uncombined into 20 objects, there will be 20 copies of the decal
added to the in scene materials
Decal texture image recommendations
The size and type of
image used for decal textures can affect performance. Use only enough
resolution and color for the intended output. Some general guidelines
(but not limits) for decal texture images are:
- 8-bit grayscale TIFF or PNG format files.
- No extra channels, layers or transparency
in the image files.
- Under 1000 x 1000 pixels. (Although input
size is limited only by your video memory, you must consider how
many copies of the decal are being displayed.)
