Particle Display Property Editor

Lets you set up how the ICE particles in each point cloud are displayed in a viewport. The Particle Display is a property of each point cloud, so you can define specific viewing preferences for each point cloud in a scene.

This feature is available only for ICE particles, not the older non-ICE particles.

To display: Select a point cloud's Particle Display icon in the explorer (under the Point Cloud node).

Display

Display As	Overrides the particle shape only for display purposes in the viewport (that is, the particle's actual shape is still rendered in the render region and final render). Select from a number of shapes from the list that are the same as found in the Emit compound (see ICE Particle Shapes [ICE Particle Simulations] for information). If you select Automatic, it uses the current Shape that is set in the Emit compound. The Segment shape draws lines behind the particles, but the particle are drawn as points. Blobs and capsules are displayed in the viewport as spheres: you can only see their true shape in the render region. If you're using instanced geometry on the particles, the shape you select will be scaled according to the geometry's bounding box. Using simpler shapes than the actual instanced geometry displays the particles more quickly for playback.
Point Size (pixels)	Sets the size of the points if you selected Points or Segments as the Display As type. You may want to use points for faster performance, or for a less cluttered display when you're not tweaking the particles. A value of 1 sets the point/segment to be 1 pixel wide
Display %	Displays a certain percentage of the particles in the viewport. This is handy for faster playback and keeping the clutter down when there are many, many particles in the scene.
Animation Detail %	Displays on a certain percentage of the animation on an instanced shape on a particle. See Displaying a Percentage of Instance Animation [ICE Particle Simulations] for information.
Show Trails	Displays lines that give a visual cue as to the particle's velocity. The amount of trail left by a particle depends on its speed of emission. If you select the the Point display shape, you can see the trails better if the particles aren't moving too quickly.
Show Strands	Displays strand trails behind the particle, if you've created strands on the particles. See What Are ICE Particle Strands? [ICE Particle Simulations] for more information.
Depth Sort	Draws the scene data from back to front when the particle color's alpha value is less than 1 (for transparent drawing). If you don't select this option, drawing artifacts can appear if a particle that is further away is drawn on top of a particle that is closer and transparent. If the particle is opaque, turn this option off for better drawing performance.
Add Display Attribute	Opens up the Display Attribute property editor in which you can create special display attributes for the particles in your point cloud, such as particle IDs, point positions, or vector trails. See Creating Particle Display Attributes [ICE Particle Simulations] for information