Specular Menu Settings
 
 
 

The Specular menu is divided into two tabbed sections: Controls and Texture.

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Effect fieldDisplays the amount of specular colour.

Softness X fieldDisplays the amount of X-axis blur applied on the specular map.

Softness Y fieldDisplays the amount of Y-axis blur applied on the specular map.

Shininess fieldDisplays the amount of shininess in the specular map.

Regen buttonEnable to dynamically refresh the image as changes are made to the specular settings.

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(a) Repeat Mode box (b) Mapping box (c) Fit Method box (d) Crop box (e) Filter box 

Repeat Mode boxSelect how the specular map pattern is repeated on the surface.

Fit Method boxSelect a fit method option to be applied to the specular map.

Keep Aspect buttonEnable to preserve the aspect ratio of non-square pixels (not available for the Fill fit method).

Use Cropped Size buttonEnable to replace the specular map with the cropped size of the specular media. Disable to use the cropped specular media as is.

Mapping boxSelect the type of texture mapping.

WrapWrap mapping completely envelops the 3D model with the texture map according to the object’s texture coordinates. To use this option, you must import a model that has its own texture coordinates. When using Wrap mode, you can also apply UV mapping settings from the Geometry menu. See Using UV Mapping.
PlanePlanar mapping applies the map without distorting the front plane of the 3D model, similar to a movie projector casting an image onto a screen. All 3D coordinates of the geometry are mapped to this plane to generate the texture values. Planar mapping positions the lower-left corner of the map on the 3D model’s axis. When you apply planar mapping, any surfaces on the 3D model perpendicular to the front plane cause the pixels at the edge of the texture to project along the “sides” of the object.
PerspectivePerspective mapping is similar to planar mapping, except that it performs a perspective transformation of the map based on the selected camera’s field of view (FOV). When you select Perspective as the mapping type, the Perspective Camera box becomes active, allowing you to specify the active camera. The FOV of the camera has an impact on the resulting effect of any transform applied to the parent axis of the texture. On stereo cameras, the interaxial distance between left and right cameras also has an effect on the resulting perspective transform.

Perspective Camera boxSpecify which camera’s FOV to take into account when using perspective mapping.

Perspective Camera fieldDisplays the active perspective camera number.

Filter boxSelect the type of filtering to apply to the specular map.

Select: To apply:
Nearest No filtering — the pixel of the texture closest to the screen pixel is displayed.
Linear Basic bilinear filtering.
Anisotropic Non-proportional filtering between X and Y (faster to process than EWA, but with a lesser quality).
Aniso+Linear A combination of Anisotropic and Linear filtering.
EWA A high-quality elliptical weighted average filter to produce enhanced rendering results (slower to process than other filters).
EWA+Linear A combination of EWA and Linear filtering (offers the most advanced filter processing).
TipYou can set the default filtering type, as well as EWA filtering functionality in the Action Setup menu.

Camera Type boxSelect the camera type visibility for the specular map. For example, you can use this setting to apply a Left Eye and Right Eye camera type for two maps that are children of the same surface or geometry in a stereo scene.

NoteTo display proper results, the specular map also uses the value of the surface or geometry shine field. A shine value of 0.0 in the Surface or Geometry menu is interpreted as 1.0.