The Sceneplate Editor is where you create and manage frontplates, backplates, groups, and switches. Options for setting properties, size, and position, as well as making color correction are all found here.
Click here to view the Sceneplate Editor video.
Along the top of the Sceneplate Editor are three menus:
Contains the following options:
Load - Opens a browser for locating and loading an OpenSG Binary Geometry (*.osb) sceneplate file.
Save - Saves all items in the Sceneplate Editor tree list as Open SG Binary Geometry (*.osb) files.
Save Selected - Saves the item or items selected in the Sceneplate Editor tree list as Open SG Binary Geometry (*.osb) files.
Contains options for editing content within the Sceneplate Editor tree. Rename, copy, paste, cut, and delete content. Create a duplicate of the selected content or paste the attributes of one sceneplate onto another or group of others. Lock sceneplates so changes cannot be made or unlock them to make changes. Reorder tree items. Select all, deselect all, or even invert a selection.
Contains options for creating frontplates, backplates, groups, and switches. To create a group with only the selected tree items, choose Create Group from Selected. To create a switch with only the selected tree items, choose Create Switch from Selected.
Right-clicking within the tree view also gives you access to these options.
To locate something within the Sceneplate Editor tree, use the search field, located under the menus. Click the field, then start typing the search term, the tree view will adjust to show only entries that match the search. Remove all content from the search field to see all the tree items.
Contains your frontplates and backplates, groups, and switches. Click to select a tree entry and show its properties in the panel to the right. When something is checked, it is visible. When unchecked, it is hidden. Right-click to access a menu with options for creating frontplates, backplates, groups, and switches, editing the selected entry, load sceneplates, select, deselect, and reposition tree entries, and view information about the selected entry.
Right-click within the Sceneplate Tree to access a context menu with the following options:
Create Backplate - Creates a backplate, once a file has been selected from the Explorer dialog. Use the Properties Editor to set properties, size, position, and color correction.
Edit - Accesses a sub-menu with options for copying, pasting, duplicating, and deleting, along with others for pasting attributes and texture size, dealing with inline images sequence, and locking and unlocking sceneplates.
Use the attributes to set things such as sceneplate name, type, location, transparency, as well as size and position and color correction.
Relative paths are used to define sceneplate location, instead of absolute. This way, no matter what version of VRED is open, the sceneplate will always be loaded.
Provides options for setting and customizing sceneplate properties, size, position, and color correction. Enter a name, the type of sceneplate, image or text used. Control the transparency and set the repeat mode. Determine the position, offset, rotation, and size of the sceneplate. If any color correction is required, change the white balance, shift the hue, and tweak the contrast, brightness, and saturation.
Contains visual shortcuts for commonly used commands in the Sceneplate Editor.
Create - provides a sub-menu with opens for creating frontplates, backplates, groups, and switches.
Duplicate - Duplicates the currently selected node.
Delete - Deletes all the selected nodes.
Toggle WebEngine Interaction - Toggles the ability to interact with the WebEngine in the viewport.
Set different visibility options for each view. From the toolbar, select Window > New Render Window, to create more views. Click to select a view, then to any of the following:
Use an animated image sequence for a sceneplate. In the Sceneplate Editor, under Content Type, select Image, then click the folder icon and load an image sequence image. Check Use Image Sequence. It will ask if it should create animation.
If there is already animation on the image number, you are not asked about creating animation. Where did it come from? It is probably due to using key all when animating something else, such as a front plate.
Sceneplates with transparent elements use an additional alpha channel for storing the transparency data. There are two ways this alpha channel can be interpreted:
Straight Alpha - Only the alpha channel contains transparency information, while the RGFB color channels do NOT. This is widely used and simple. An issue arises, however, when using it in textures. A visible halo may be introduced around semi-transparent pixels, if no special precautions are taken.
Sceneplates support both image types. As most image files do not indicate which alpha representation is use, the Sceneplate Editor has a check box for manually setting the correct type. By default, it is set to Straight Alpha.
If you see dark borders around opaque areas, it is likely your image is a premultiplied alpha image, so enable Premultiplied Alpha.
If you see bright borders around opaque areas, your image might use a straight alpha image, but Premultiplied Alpha is enabled. Disable Premultiplied Alpha.
Use web-engines as content for frontplates. After, you can use the color correction tools to change the white balance, brightness, contrast, hue shift, and/or saturation.
If you have a transparent plate with buttons, the transparent areas can be picked through. When you need to select the content, you can simply click through the frontplate. This means you don't need to hide the frontplate, make your selection, then turn visibility back on. Also, when using color correction, if the frontplate is selected, only it will be affected, even though you can interact with the content behind the plate.
In the Renderpasses section, under Image Processing, you can select Frontplates and Backplates. This renders all the views, providing a backplate pass and frontplate pass, any empty views, and the full view. If you have four views, there will be four renders.
If you disable the backplates, you can see the backplate pass, the frontplate pass, etc.