About the Render Settings Palette

The Render Setting palette contains the main controls for the renderer, including predefined render settings and custom settings.

The Render Settings palette (opened with RPREF) contains the main controls for the renderer, including predefined render settings and custom settings.

The palette is separated into several sections ranging from basic to advanced settings. The General sections contain settings that affect how your model gets rendered, how materials and shadows are handled, and how anti-aliasing is performed. (Anti-aliasing smooths the stairstep effect at the edge of curved lines or edges.) The Raytracing section controls how shading occurs. The Indirect Illumination section controls lighting properties, how your scene is illuminated, and if global illumination and final gathering are processed. There are also diagnostic controls that can be useful in helping you understand why an image isn’t getting rendered as expected.

Render Presets

A drop-down list provides a collection of predefined render settings called render presets. Render presets store groups of settings that allow the renderer to produce varying quality images. The standard presets range from Draft quality, for quick test images, up to Presentation quality, which provides photorealistic images. You can also open the Render Presets Manager where you can create custom presets.