Causes hidden objects to cast shadows. You can also set this in the UI under Render > Render Globals.

Parameters: none

Default: OFF when undefined

Windows compatibility: Yes

Causes all objects to cast shadows, including objects not linked with shadow casting lights (barring their own cast-shadows flags).

Parameters: none

Default: OFF when undefined

Windows compatibility: Yes

Sets the number of processors used for tessellation by the powertracer.

Parameters: an integer representing the number of processors

Default: 1

Windows compatibility: Yes

Invokes a new, experimental point sampling technique for anti-aliasing that is better at noise generation, but may take longer.

Parameters: none

Default: OFF

Windows compatibility: Yes

The path relative to ALIAS_RENDERLOCATION where the Open Render Plug-ins reside. For example, if the .o files for the Open Render plug-ins are in /usr/larry/render/plugins and you are rendering in /usr/larry/, then ALIAS_OCRPATH should be set to render/plugins.

Parameters: a valid path to a directory

Default: ’.’ (the current working directory)

Windows compatibility: No

The directory where file textures can be found. This is defined in the .cshrc file as $ALIAS_LIB_LOCATION/pix/*.

Parameters: a valid path to a directory

Default: ./texture if not set by the .cshrc file.

Windows compatibility: Yes

Windows default: .\

Sets all reflection-only objects visible for reflection rays only. Used for raytracer/powertracer only, when the reflection-only tag is set on (under render stats).

Parameters: none

Default: OFF (all reflection-only objects are visible for reflection and refraction rays)

Windows compatibility: Yes

When rendering remotely from Alias (that is, launching the renderer on a different machine), Alias assumes that the renderer will be found in the default installation directory on that machine.

If it has been installed elsewhere, set the ALIAS_REMOTE_LOCATION variable on the local machine to the default installation directory on the remote machine (on Windows: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Alias[version no.]).

Parameters: a valid path to a directory

For example:

ALIAS_REMOTE_LOCATION /my/custom/install/directory

Default: none

The ALIAS_RENDER_LOAD_TIMEOUT environment variable can be used to increase the amount of time that Alias will wait to communicate with the Alias renderers.

Under normal circumstances the renderer will load within the default timeout period and this environment variable is not necessary.

In cases where the renderer takes more than 20 seconds to load it is recommended that this variable be set to a larger value. If the Alias renderer is unable to load within the timeout period, the following error will be written to the Alias errlog:

    "Timed out waiting for renderer to connect with Studio." 

This behavior is rare and is usually caused by one of the following:

• Slow CPU
• Slow hard drive or controller
• Heavily fragmented hard drive

The value for ALIAS_RENDER_LOAD_TIMEOUT is measured in seconds.

Example:ALIAS_RENDER_LOAD_TIMEOUT=120 will cause Alias to wait two minutes before giving up on an attempt to communicate with the renderer.

Sets reflection and refraction rays which do not hit anything to return either the background color or black (during ray tracing only).

Parameters:

Default: refraction rays return the background color; reflection rays return black

Windows compatibility: Yes

Sets the shadow offset to be used during ray tracing (to avoid self-shadowing).

Parameters: a floating point value

Default: 0.0

Windows compatibility: Yes

Allows many more comments to be included in the SDL file. The quantity of comments was reduced to make SDL files smaller as of V7.0.

Parameters: none

Default: OFF when undefined

Windows compatibility: Yes

Sets the far clipping plane of the shadow map. Use only when light fog (and resulting shadows) is shone into the distance.

Parameters: a floating point value

Default: OFF

Windows compatibility: Yes

Causes field rendered images to be constructed in the format that Composer expects, versus the (now obsolete) format that the old Alias video output facility expected (the default).

Parameters: none

Default: OFF

Windows compatibility: Yes

Makes refractions appear as they did in Alias 9.0. This can sometimes result in rays prematurely exiting a chunky refractive object (for example, a diamond) and the incorrect appearance of refractions.

Parameters: none

Default: OFF

Windows compatibility: Yes

Adds lighting on top of a use-background colored surface.

Parameters: none

Default: OFF

Windows compatibility: Yes

Sets displacement mapping to ignore the magnitude of the tangents, and displace the geometry a fixed distance from the original surface regardless of deformation or parameterization of the original surface.

Parameters: none

Default: OFF

Windows compatibility: Yes

Writes an image <pixfilename>.glow that contains only the glow aspects.

Parameters: none

Default: OFF

Windows compatibility: Yes