Z-Depth Menu Settings
The Depth map menu is divided into two tabbed sections: Controls and Texture.
Controls Tab
Analysis Type box
Use Analysis to analyse in Action the media assigned to the map by using the Analysis tab. Face Analysis to analyze depth information for a face. Global Analysis to analyze the depth of a scene.
Effect field
Displays the amount of displacement applied. Editable.
Softness X field
Displays the amount of X-axis blur applied to the Z-Depth map. Editable
Softness Y field
Displays the amount of Y-axis blur applied to the Z-Depth map. Editable
Z-Depth Pass button
Enable to have this Z-Depth map contribute to the Z-Depth render pass output by Action.
Displace Vertices button
Enable to use the Z-Depth map in the render of the 3D scene.
3D button
Enable to actually displace the vertices, as opposed to only changing the fragment's depth. When using this option, the surface resolution dictates the precision of the displacement: the higher the resolution of the Z-Depth map, the higher the precision.
Bump Normals button
Enable to use the Z-Depth map to generate new normals. Important: Any Normal map attached to the object overrides any normal information from this Z-Depth map.
Depth Range box
Set to Normalized if the Z-Depth information comes from another Action node. Set to Absolute if the Z-Depth map comes from a 3D DCC app, in most cases: you might need to experiment. Normalized information is in the [0 to 1.0] range, computed from the [Near-Far] distance from the camera.
Z-Depth HQ
Enable if the media used in this Z-Depth map is a Z-Depth HQ render pass output from another Action.
Texture Tab
Repeat Mode box
Select how the depth map pattern is repeated on the surface.
Fit Method box
Select a fit method option to be applied to the depth map.
Keep Aspect button
Enable to preserve the aspect ratio of non-square pixels (not available for the Fill fit method).
Use Cropped Size button
Enable to replace the depth map with the cropped size of the depth media. Disable to use the cropped depth media as is.
Mapping box
Select the type of texture mapping.
| Wrap (Geom UVs) Wrap mapping completely envelops the 3D model with the texture map according to the object’s texture coordinates. To use this option, you must import a model that has its own texture coordinates. When using Wrap mode, you can also apply UV mapping settings from the Geometry menu. |
| Plane Planar mapping applies the map without distorting the front plane of the 3D model, similar to a movie projector casting an image onto a screen. All 3D coordinates of the geometry are mapped to this plane to generate the texture values. Planar mapping positions the lower-left corner of the map on the 3D model’s axis. When you apply planar mapping, any surfaces on the 3D model perpendicular to the front plane cause the pixels at the edge of the texture to project along the “sides” of the object. |
| Perspective Perspective mapping is similar to planar mapping, except that it performs a perspective transformation of the map based on the selected camera’s field of view (FOV). When you select Perspective as the mapping type, the Perspective Camera box becomes active, allowing you to specify the active camera. The FOV of the camera has an impact on the resulting effect of any transform applied to the parent axis of the texture. On stereo cameras, the interaxial distance between left and right cameras also has an effect on the resulting perspective transform. |
| Projection The texture behaves as if it is projected by the selected camera. Projection mapping is useful as an alternative to projecting textures using the Projector node, especially when it is necessary to project while preserving a specific camera POV. |
Perspective Camera box
Specify which camera's FOV to take into account when using perspective or projection mapping.
Perspective Camera field
Displays the active perspective or projection camera number. Non-editable.
Stereo Camera Projection box
Select whether to use the centre, left, or right camera from a stereo camera rig when projection mapping.
Filter box
Select the type of filtering to apply to the depth map.
| Select: | To apply: |
|---|---|
| Nearest | No filtering — the pixel of the texture closest to the screen pixel is displayed. |
| Linear | Basic bilinear filtering. |
| Anisotropic | Non-proportional filtering between X and Y (faster to process than EWA, but with a lesser quality). |
| Aniso+Linear | A combination of Anisotropic and Linear filtering. |
| EWA | A high-quality elliptical weighted average filter to produce enhanced rendering results (slower to process than other filters). |
| EWA+Linear | A combination of EWA and Linear filtering (offers the most advanced filter processing). |
Camera Type box
Select the camera type visibility for the depth map. For example, you can use this setting to apply a Left Eye and Right Eye camera type for two maps that are children of the same surface or geometry in a stereo scene.
Analysis tab
CPU Processing button
Enable to perform the depth analysis using the CPU instead of the GPU. Using the CPU can help with stability on computers equipped with minimal amounts of VRAM.
32-bit Floating Point button
Enable to use create maps with 32-bit floating point precision. Disable to use 16-bit floating point precision for a smaller cache footprint, but at the cost of precision. Disable this option if you run out of framestore space because of caching.
Display Region of Interest button
Display the region of interest so you can edit it. You must also set a viewport to the normals Object View: press F8 in a viewport.
Active Region of Interest button
Enable to analyze only the region defined by the region of interest. Defining an ROI improves performance, caching, and the quality of the analysis by analyzing a smaller area of the media.
ROI X Position field
Set the X coordinate of the center of the ROI.
ROI Y Position field
Set the Y coordinate of the center of the ROI.
Caching Start field
The first frame of the interval to cache.
Caching End field
The last frame of the interval to cache.
Cache Range button
Analyze the media, and caches the results for the interval defined by the From and To fields. If a Region of Interest is defined, only that area is analyzed and cached. Disables sections Analysis and Region of Interest.
Clear button
Clear the cached motion analysis. Enables sections Analysis and Region of Interest.
Auto-Caching button
Enable to analyze and cache the analysis as you play back or scrub each frame. Turn off Auto-Caching if you run out of space on your framestore.