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 ) to open the Alternatives interface.
- Create a .
- Select the decal grip and press the 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.
Note
Each 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.
Note
Remove 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.)
