Streak Lens Effect

Streak Element rollout, Parameters panel

Name: Displays the name of the effect. With Lens Effects, you can have many different effects under one instance of Lens Effects. To keep them in order, it is necessary to name them to make sure that when you change parameters you are changing the parameters to the correct effect.
On: Applies the effect to the rendered image when activated.
Size: Determines the size of the effect.
Intensity: Controls the overall brightness and opacity of the individual effect. Higher values produce a bright, more opaque effect, and lower values produces a dim, transparent effect.
Width: Specifies the width of the streak, as a percentage of the frame.
Angle: Specifies the angle for the streak. You can enter both positive and negative values so, when animated, the streak rotates in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.
Taper: Controls the taper of the individual spokes of the streak. Taper widens or narrows the tips of the individual streak points. Low numbers create a sharp point, while high numbers flare the points.
Sharp: Specifies the overall sharpness of the streak. Higher numbers produce crisp, clean, and clear streaks. Lower numbers produce more of a secondary glow look. Range=0 to 10.
Glow Behind: Gives the effect the ability to be displayed behind objects in your 3ds Max scene.
Occlusion: Determines how much the Lens Effects Scene Occlusion parameters will affect the particular effect. The value entered determines what percentage of occlusion set in the Lens Effects Globals panel will be applied.
Squeeze: Determines whether the effect will be squeezed. When activated, the effect will be squeezed according to Lens Effects Globals under the Parameters panel in the Squeeze spinner.
Use Source Color: Mixes the source color of the light or object you are applying the effect to and the color or mapping set in the Radial Color or Circular Color parameters. A value of 0 uses only the values set in the Radial Color and Circular Color parameters while a value of 100 uses only the light or objects source color. Any value between 0 and 100 will render a mix between the source color and the effect’s color parameters.

Radial Color group

Falloff Curve: Displays the Radial Falloff dialog in which you can set weights for the colors used in Radial Color. By manipulating the Falloff Curve you can make the effect use more of one color or map than the other. You can also use a map to determine the falloff when a light is used as a Lens Effects source.

Section Color group

Section Color determines the color of the effect by using three different color swatches that are matched to the three sections of the effect. A map can also be used to determine section color.

Mix: Mixes colors set in Radial Color and colors set in Section Color. Setting the spinner at 0 will only use values set in Radial Color while setting the spinner at 100 will only use values set in Section Color. Any value between 0 and 100 will mix between the two values.
Falloff Curve: Displays the Circular Falloff dialog in which you can set weights for the colors used in Section Color. By manipulating the Falloff Curve you can make the effect use more of one color or map than another. You can also use a map to determine the falloff when a light is used as a Lens Effects source.

Radial Size group

Determines the radial size around the particular Lens Effect. Clicking the Size Curve button displays the Radial Size dialog. Using the Radial Size dialog you can create points on a line and move those points along a graph to determine where the effect should be placed around the light or object. You can also use a map to determine where the effect should be placed. A check box is used to activate the map.

Streak Element rollout, Options panel

Apply Element To group

Lights: Applies the effect to lights picked in Lens Effects Globals under the Parameters tab in the Lights group box.
Image: Applies the effect to objects that have a corresponding Object ID channel.
Image Centers: Applies to the center of an object or to portions of an object as determined by the Image Filters.

Image Sources group

Object ID: Applies the Lens Effect to particular objects in your scene that have a corresponding G-Buffer (or Object) ID. The G-Buffer is a geometry buffer and can be defined when you right-click any object and select Properties from the menu. Then, set the Object Channel ID under the G-Buffer ID controls.
Material ID: Applies the Lens Effect to an object or part of an object with a specific Material ID channel assigned to it. Assign the channel with the Material Editor Material ID channel flyout. The effect is applied only to areas of the geometry where that ID channel is present.

TipIn some cases you might want to apply different Lens Effects settings to different pieces of geometry or IDs. To accomplish this, add additional Lens Effects entries to the Lens Effects Parameters list. Then set each different Lens Effect entry to affect a different Material ID or Object ID and proceed.
Unclamp: An unclamped color is brighter than pure white (255,255,255). 3ds Max keeps track of these "hot" areas which tend to show up when your scene contains bright metallic highlights or explosions. This spinner lets you determine the lowest pixel value that the Lens Effect is applied to. Pure white has a pixel value of 1. When this spinner is set to 1, any pixels with a value above 255 will be glowed. You can invert this value by clicking the I button to the right of the spinner.
Surf Norm: Applies the Lens Effect to part of an object, based on the angle of the surface normal to the camera. A value of 0 is coplanar, or parallel to the screen. A value of 90 is normal, or perpendicular to the screen. If you set Surf Norm to 45, only surfaces with normal angles greater than 45 degrees will be glowed. You can invert this value by clicking the I button to the right of the spinner.
Whole: Applies the Lens Effect to the whole scene, not just a particular piece of geometry. This, in effect, makes each pixel in the scene a potential Lens Effect source. The areas of the scene that have the Lens Effect applied to them are determined by the settings in the Image Filters group box.
Alpha: Applies the Lens Effect to the alpha channel of an image. The transparency of an alpha channel is interpreted opposite that of the Mask channel. Range=0 to 255.
Z Hi/Z Lo: Highlights objects based on their distance (Z-Buffer distance) from the camera. The Hi value is the maximum distance and the Lo value is the minimum. Any objects between these two Z-Buffer distances will be highlighted.

Image Filters group

Filters the Image Sources selections to let you control how the Lens Effect is applied. For example, you can have ten spheres in your scene, each with the same Object ID, but different colors. If you set the Image Source as the Object ID of the spheres, which selects all of the spheres, these will be the only objects in the scene that Lens Effects will apply an effect to.

However, now that Lens Effects knows where the pixels are that effects can be applied, it needs to know which ones to actually apply the effect to. Lens Effects uses the filter controls to find out which source pixels to apply the effect to.

All: Selects all source pixels in the scene and applies the Lens Effect to them.
Edge: Selects all source pixels along a boundary edge and applies the Lens Effect to them. Applying a Lens Effect along the edges of objects produces a soft halo that exists on both inside and outside edges of your object.
Perim(eter) Alpha: Applies the Lens Effect only to the perimeter of an object based on its alpha channel. Selecting this option applies the effect only on the outside of an object without any spill on the interior. Whereas filtering by Edge produces a spill onto the object, Perimeter Alpha keeps all of the edges clean because it relies on the scene alpha channel to derive its effect.
Perim(eter): Applies the Lens Effect only to the perimeter of an object based on Edge interference. Although not as precise as Perimeter Alpha, you might need to use the Perimeter option at times when the alpha channel is unavailable.
Bright: Filters the source objects based on their brightness values. The effect is only applied to objects with a brightness above the spinner setting This option can be inverted by clicking the I button next to the spinner
Hue: Filters the source objects by their hue. Select the hue by clicking the color swatch next to the spinner. You can choose hue values from 0 to 255. The spinner beside the Hue color swatch lets you enter a variance level so that the glow can find several different hues in the same range as the chosen color

Additional Effects group

Additional Effects allows you to apply maps such as Noise to your Lens Effect. You can display the Material/Map browser by clicking the long button next to the Apply check box.

Apply: Applies the selected map when activated.
Radial Density: Determines where and how much you would like the additional effects applied. Clicking the Radial Density button displays the Radial Density dialog. Using the Radial Density dialog you can create points on a line and move those points along a graph to determine where the additional effect should be placed around the light. You can also use a map to determine where the additional effect should be placed.