XML Reference

This section and its sub-topics contain detailed reference information about all configuration settings that are read from the XML configuration file that you provide when you launch a rendering job. Most settings have default values that should be acceptable for most projects, so that you only need to specify a small subset of the settings described in the following sections. For a quick overview of the most important settings relevant to all projects, see instead Sample XML Configuration File for Classic Material Rendering.

XML file structure

The root element of all Beast configuration settings is <ILConfig>. This element has several subordinate elements that gather settings into related groups, as shown below.

<ILConfig>

    <FrameSettings>
        <!-- This element contains settings that apply globally to the processing
             of the render pass, such as controlling the number of processing units
             that will be used, whether or not to dither the final image, the types
             of messages that should be written to the log, etc. 
             See  FrameSettings. //-->
    </FrameSettings>

    <RenderSettings>
        <!-- This element contains settings that affect rendering precision, such as
             the number of rays to use for shadows, the number of reflections allowed,
             transparency depth, etc. 
             See  RenderSettings. //-->
    </RenderSettings>

    <GISettings>
        <!-- This element contains settings that configure the Global Illumination
             algorithms used by Beast for lighting
             scenes with "classic" materials. 
             See  GISettings. //-->
    </GISettings>

    <AASettings>
        <!-- This element contains settings that control adaptive sampling for textures
             and atlased textures, for scenes with "classic" materials. 
             See  AASettings. //-->
    </AASettings>

    <TextureBakeSettings>
        <!-- This element contains settings that configure the way lightmaps are
             baked to textures. 
             See TextureBakeSettings. //-->
    </TextureBakeSettings>

    <VertexBakeSettings>
        <!-- This element contains settings that configure the way lighting data is
             baked for vertices. 
             See VertexBakeSettings. //-->
    </VertexBakeSettings>

    <ADSSettings>
        <!-- This element contains advanced settings that configure the acceleration 
             data structures used to optimize rendering.
             See  ADSSettings. //-->
    </ADSSettings>

</ILConfig>

The page for each group described above lists all settings available within that group, and shows their default values in the code block at the top of the page.

Note, however, that in some cases the Beast API may override the values of the settings that you provide in the file depending on the way your have set up your render passes, targets and job. For example, global illumination is automatically disabled when your render pass doesn't need it, such as for an ambient occlusion pass, a light pass that generates only shadowmaps, or an illumination or RNM pass that handles only direct light.

XML Reference

XML file structure

Topics in this section