Shade surfaces with a render preview of their rendered appearance

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

• Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade.

Quickly create a ground shadow

1. Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade.
2. In the option window, turn on the Ground plane option.
3. Among the new options now available, turn on Receive shadows.
4. 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.

   Note:

   Shadows are only displayed in the Perspective window.

You can also:

1. Set Shadow position to either DIRECTLY ABOVE, 45 DEGREES RIGHT, or 45 DEGREES LEFT to change the position of the default light source.
2. 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.

3. 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

1. In the WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade option box, set Shadow position to USER DEFINED.
2. Create a new spot light or directional light using Render > Create Lights > Spot or Render > Create Lights > Directional.
3. 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.

4. Choose Render > Multi-lister> Lights to open the Light Editor.
5. Double-click the light you just created to open the light parameter window.
6. 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.

7. 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

1. Choose WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade.
2. In the option window, turn on the Use Environment option.
3. Choose Render > Multi-lister> Shaders to open the Shader Editor.
4. Double-click theDefaultShader to open its parameter window.
5. In the Parameter window, click the Hardware tab, and make sure that Use Environment is turned on and Reflectivity is not 0.0.
6. Do one of the following:
   • Double-click a cube map environment at the top of the Visualize Control Panel. (This is any environment whose name does not start with "Geo".)
   • Use an existing cube map environment (File > Environment Browse in Multi-lister).
   • Create a cube map environment in the Multi-lister.
7. 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.