Shade surfaces with a close approximation
of their rendered appearance, allowing you to preview and edit the
look of the rendered scene.
Switch between wireframe
and a render preview
Quickly create a ground
shadow
- Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade ❒.
- In the option window, turn on the Ground
plane option.
- Among the new options now available,
turn on Receive shadows.
- Click the Shade On button.
The
model is shaded and ground shadows are displayed. The ground is
located at Z = 0 (in a Z up coordinate system, or Y = 0 in a Y up
coordinate system). By default, the shadow is projected from a light
source located 45 degrees to the right and above the model.
NoteShadows
are only displayed in the Perspective window.
You can also:
- Set Shadow position to
either DIRECTLY ABOVE, 45 DEGREES RIGHT, or 45 DEGREES LEFT to change
the position of the default light source.
- Adjust the value of the Shadow
transparency slider (from 0.0, completely opaque, to
1.0, completely transparent).
The shadows update each time an option is modified.
- Adjust the value of Plane
height to change the position of the ground plane on
which the shadow is projected.
Create a shadow from a
user-defined light source
- In the WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade option box, set Shadow position to USER
DEFINED.
- Create a new spot light or directional
light using Render > Create Lights > Spot or Render > Create Lights > Directional .
- Use the manipulator to position the light
and adjust its direction.
The
position and direction of the light is used to generate the ground
shadow.
- Choose Render > Multi-lister > Lights to open
the Light Editor.
- Double-click the light you just created
to open the light parameter window.
- In the Parameter window, click the Hardware
(per vertex) tab, then turn on Hardware Shade Shadows in
the Active Effects section.
Only the light currently being edited throws
shadows. All other lights are turned off automatically.
- In the Shadow Parameters section, adjust
the Shadow Color slider if needed,
or click the color swatch to select a new color.
If you modify the orientation
of the light source, the shadow updates interactively.
Reflect background environment
- Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade ❒.
- In the option window, turn on the Reflect
background option.
- Choose Render > Multi-lister > Shaders to
open the Shader Editor.
- Double-click the DefaultShader
to open its parameter window.
- In the Parameter window, click the Hardware
(per vertex) tab, and make sure that Refl.
Backgnd is turned on and Reflectivity is
not 0.0.
- Do one of the following:
- Double-click a cube map environment at
the top of the Visualize Control Panel
- Use an existing cube map environment
(File > Environment Browse in
Multi-lister).
- Create a cube map environment in the
Multi-lister.
- Click the Shade On button
in the Hardware Shade option box.
What if...?
- Some or all of my
surfaces appear gray?
Alias uses
VPro graphics capabilities to implement hardware-accelerated per-fragment
lighting when the Light source option is DEFAULT.
This results in more
realistic-looking depictions of Phong-shaded
surfaces. Other shader types (Lambert and Blinn) appear matte gray.
To show a render preview
of all shaders (not just Phong) on an Octane2 with VPro graphics,
choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade ❒, then click a Light source option
other than DEFAULT.
- The render preview is black or very dark?
Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade ❒.
The Light source
option controls how the surfaces are lit.
- DEFAULT uses
a default directional light and ambient light.
- SELECTED LIGHTS uses
any lights that are picked (up to 8).
- ALL LIGHTS uses
any lights in the scene (up to 8).
If Light
source is set to SELECTED LIGHTS but
no lights are picked, or if Light source is
set to ALL LIGHTS but there are no
lights in the scene, the surfaces are not lit and appear black.
Switch to DEFAULT lighting or create/pick
some lights in the scene.
- The render preview is not using the lights
I set up?
Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade ❒.
The Light source
option controls how the surfaces are lit.
- DEFAULT uses
a default directional light and ambient light.
- SELECTED LIGHTS uses
any lights that are picked (up to 8).
- ALL LIGHTS uses
any lights in the scene (up to 8).
To use the lights you
have set up the scene, set Light source to ALL
LIGHTS, or pick the lights you want to use and set Light source
to SELECTED LIGHTS.