About the Lighting Environment and Background Properties window: Background tab

Controls for Infinite Background environments

These controls appear when working with Infinite Background environments.

Mapping

Select an appropriate mapping option for your background.

If you are using the same image for your background as you are for lighting (the typical case), this type will be Latlong. Showcase only supports Latlong images for environment lighting.

If you are using a different image for your background (for example, by selecting one under Use separate image for background near the top of the window), available types depend on the image being used.

• Planar - 2D: Maps any 2D image to a plane that is infinitely distant and always facing the camera. Useful for positioning objects against a photograph of a scene.
• Cross - 3D: Similar to an unfolded cube, where each face is a rectilinear view of the cardinal directions (up, down, front, back).
  
  Useful for placing objects inside a panoramic scene.
• LatLong - 3D: similar to a world map, where the sphere is mapped to a 2:1 ratio with the poles at the top and bottom edges.
  
  This can reduce the "pinching" effect at the top and bottom (poles) of the environments.

On window resizing the background

Determines how an infinite environment image is resized when the main window is resized.

• Resizes to fit horizontally: The image resizes to fit the window's horizontal dimension. The image may be cropped vertically, or there may be a blue band at the top or bottom edges.
• Resizes to fit vertically: The image resizes to fit the window's vertical dimension. The image may be cropped (or there may be a blue band) at the side edges.
• Resizes to fit the window: The image resizes to fit the window's vertical dimension. The image may be cropped (or there may be a blue band) at the side edges.

Scale

Scales the image to better fit the objects in the scene. Move the slider or type a value to resize the image.

Background rotation offset

Unlike Rotate lighting and background in the Lighting tab, where the environment and lighting is affected, this just rotates the background.

Vertical offset

With a Planar environment, offsets the image up or down. With a 3D environment, moves the panorama up or down along the vertical axis of the camera.

Controls for Geometry Background environments

These controls appear when working with Geometry Background environments.

Show more details: Colorize

Adds a uniform color to the image, but preserves the brightness based on the tone of the color. Using a grayscale color will desaturate the image.

Show more details: Saturation

Sets the overall saturation of the scene. More saturation will result in a more “colored” environment lighting, while less will result in a more “neutral” lighting.

Show more details: Texture Position

The material applied to each part of the environment APF can be mapped like any other image texture. The controls for mapping environment materials are identical to mapping images on any other object in Showcase.

Specify the mapping type, tiling, transforms, or interactively move the texture on the visible environment.

Note

Deselect all other objects and grips in the scene before moving the environment texture.

For more information on positioning maps with these controls, see the topic Move image maps and its section Move image maps with parametric (UV) mapping and Move image maps with projection mapping.

Ground Image: Use separate image for ground

Select this if you are happy with your environment lighting and background but what to change the ground image of your scene. Use the browse controls provided to find a new file. Autodesk recommends using an HDR file, but most image types are supported.

The visible environment in the scene is mapped to geometry. This geometry is defined by an APF file with multiple parts and texture coordinates. Using an appropriate size, position, and environment shape will greatly enhance the realism of the visible environment.

Shape and Position: Shape

Specify the APF file geometry for the entire environment. Preset shapes are included with the installation, and can be found in the application install location.

Shape and Position: Size

Scale the environment around the objects in your scene by a scale factor. This scale is applied to this individual environment. To scale all environments in the scene, use File > Settings > Scene settings.

Shape and Position: Background rotation offset

Unlike Rotate lighting and background in the Lighting tab, where the environment and lighting is affected, this just rotates the background.

Shape and Position: Move environment

Opens the Transform dialog box for the environment geometry. Position and rotation can be set for this individual environment.

Set the following preference if you are using ray tracing in your scene.

Use reflection lighting map

All reflections of the environment will be based off of the IBL or Light maps. The geometry of the environment will be ignored.

Note

If this is checked, the shadows they cast on the ground and the shape of the environment geometry will have no effect on reflections.

Use environment shape

all reflections of the environment will be based off of the environment geometry and any textures applied to it. The IBL or Light maps will be ignored. For best environment reflection results with this option, use an HDR image for the environment geometry texture.

Note

When using this option, environment reflections will differ between Hardware rendering and Ray Tracing. Reflections may be dull (if the environment geometry is not textured with an HDR image), and will “shift” compared to Hardware rendering.