Regenerate Maps

Generates all RenderMap images or Color at Vertices properties defined in this property editor. If multiple rendermap properties are being inspected simultaneously, they will all be regenerated simultaneously.

Set Resolution From Clip

Matches the RenderMap images’ resolution to the resolution of any one image clip attached to the rendermapped object.

Clicking this button opens a pop-up explorer where the image clips are displayed.

Sampling

Specifies whether to render the surface attributes as RenderMap textures (RenderMap), or only the vertices, as a Color at Vertices property (RenderVertex).

X/Y Res

Specifies the resolution of the RenderMap images in X and Y. to generate non-square images, make sure that the Square option is deactivated.

Square

When enabled, each RenderMap image’s Y resolution is automatically set to the same value as its X resolution, producing a square image.

Super Sampling

Defines the number of samples taken for each pixel. For sampling purposes, the pixel is divided into a grid whose size is determined by the super sampling value. For example, if the value is set to 3, the pixel is divided into a 3x3 grid, and 9 samples are taken.

UV

Specifies the UV coordinate set from which the RenderMap is created.

Select an existing UV set from the drop-down menu and Click Edit to open its property page.

To create a new UV set, click New and choose a projection type from the list.

Enable

Deactivate this option when you do not wish to generate a surface color map, but do wish to generate other types of maps, such as those found on the Other Attributes tab.

Path (RenderMap only)

The destination file name and path for RenderMap. If Usr is on, the path is displayed as you entered it. If Res is on, the resolved path is displayed. You can also click the browse (...) button to open a browser and navigate to the destination location.

Format (RenderMap only)

Sets the file format of the rendermap image. This also determines the file-name extension.

Available file formats are as follows:

• “pic” SOFTIMAGE 8-bit RGBA picture

• “bmp” uncompressed 8-bit RGB MS Windows BMP pictures

• “exr” OpenEXR

• “tiff” uncompressed 8-bit RGBA TIFF picture

• “targa” compressed 8-bit RGBA Targa pictures

• “map” Memory mapped texture image.

• “ct” mental images’ color texture image.

• “jpg” JPEG format with maximum quality

Width (RenderMap only)

Specifies the output image’s bit depth.

The options in this list vary depending on the specified Image Format. Some formats support only 8-bit, others support 8-bit and 16-bit, and still others support 8-bit, 16-bit and Float. One notable exception is the OpenEXR format, which supports “half” (16-bit float), and float.

CAV (RenderVertex Only)

Defines the color at vertices map to which the RenderVertex is written.

Select an existing CAV from the drop-down menu and Click Edit to open its property page.

To create a new map, click New and choose Color at Vertices from the list.

Map

Specifies the attributes that RenderMap or RenderVertex should render when the surface color maps are generated.

• Surface Color and Illumination bakes all object surface attributes, including color, illumination, bump, and so on, into the rendermap output image.

• Surface Color Only (albedo) bakes object surface color without considering the current illumination environment.

• Illumination bakes illumination information into the surface color map. This includes light color.

Illumination maps can optionally include bump map information provided that the Consider Bump option is activated.

• Ambient Occlusion uses Softimage’s ambient occlusion shader to create a color representation of the extent to which the object is occluded by other objects, or the environment, at any given point.

When you’re setting the RenderMap properties, you can adjust a subset of the ambient occlusion shader’s parameters to control the final output map. These options are on the Surface Map Settings tab.

Ambient occlusion maps can optionally include bump map information provided that the Consider Bump option is activated.

Consider Bump

When activated, bump mapping is included in the surface color map. This option is useful for deactivating bump in order to not include it in the surface color map, although this is not possible for all map types.

Coverage in Alpha Channel (RenderMap Only)

When activated, the RenderMap’s texel coverage is written to the alpha channel of the output Surface Color map.

Overwrite CAV alpha channel (RenderVertex only)

When activated, regenerating the RenderVertex maps overwrites the alpha channel of the CAV property in which the Surface Color map is stored. When deactivated, only the RGB channels are overwritten.

Regenerate Maps

Generates all RenderMap images or Color at Vertices properties defined in this property editor. If multiple rendermap properties are being inspected simultaneously, they will all be regenerated simultaneously.

Enable

Activates the Texel Coverage map. The map is now generated, along with any other active maps, when you click the Regenerate Maps button on any tab.

Destination

Specifies the name and destination of the image file containing the texel coverage map.

If Usr is on, the path is relative to the active project directory. If Res is on, the path is absolute. You can type a different path or use the Browse (...) button to change locations. Valid paths are displayed in white, invalid paths are red, and read-only paths are gray.

Format

Sets the file format of the image file containing the texel coverage map. This also determines the file-name extension.

Available file formats are as follows:

• “pic” SOFTIMAGE 8-bit RGBA picture

• “bmp” uncompressed 8-bit RGB MS Windows BMP pictures

• “exr” OpenEXR

• “tiff” uncompressed 8-bit RGBA TIFF picture

• “targa” compressed 8-bit RGBA Targa pictures

• “map” Memory mapped texture image.

• “ct” mental images’ color texture image.

• “jpg” JPEG format with maximum quality

Width

Specifies the texel coverage map’s bit depth.

The options in this list vary depending on the specified Image Format. Some formats support only 8-bit, others support 8-bit and 16-bit, and still others support 8-bit, 16-bit and Float. One notable exception is the OpenEXR format, which supports “half” (16-bit float), and float.

Enable

Activates the Normal map. The map is now generated, along with any other active maps, when you click the Regenerate Maps button on any tab.

Destination

Specifies where the normal map is burned:

• If you are generating a RenderMap image (Sampling is set to Entire Surface on the Basic tab) you must enter the name and destination of the image file containing the normal map.

If Usr is on, the path is relative to the active project directory. If Res is on, the path is absolute. You can type a different path or use the Browse (...) button to change locations. Valid paths are displayed in white, invalid paths are red, and read-only paths are gray.

• If you are generating a RenderVertex (Sampling is set to Vertices Only on the Basic tab) you must specify a Color At Vertices property to store the normal map.

Select a CAV property from the drop-down list and, if necessary, click Edit to edit its properties. Alternatively, you can click New to create a new CAV property for the normal map.

Format

If you are generating a RenderMap image (Sampling is set to Entire Surface on the Basic tab), this sets the file format of the image file containing the normal map. This also determines the file-name extension.

Available file formats are as follows:

• "pic" SOFTIMAGE 8-bit RGBA picture

• “bmp” uncompressed 8-bit RGB MS Windows BMP pictures

• “exr” OpenEXR

• “tiff” uncompressed 8-bit RGBA TIFF picture

• “targa” compressed 8-bit RGBA Targa pictures

• “map” Memory mapped texture image.

• “ct” mental images’ color texture image.

• “jpg” JPEG format with maximum quality

Width

If you are generating a RenderMap image (Sampling is set to Entire Surface on the Basic tab), this specifies the normal map’s bit depth.

The options in this list vary depending on the specified Image Format. Some formats support only 8-bit, others support 8-bit and 16-bit, and still others support 8-bit, 16-bit and Float. One notable exception is the OpenEXR format, which supports “half” (16-bit float), and float.

Space

Normal vectors can be encoded in one of three spaces:

• Object space: The vector is represented relative to the coordinate frame of the object. Rotation, translation and scaling of the object do not have an impact on the result.

• World space: The vector is represented relative to the scene root. Rotations and scaling of the object will impact the result. Translation never affects normals.

• Relative to UV Basis: The vector is represented in the local space defined by the UV basis, i.e., the coordinate frame defined by the tangent (X-axis), binormal (Y-axis), and interpolated normal (Z-axis).

The tangent and binormal (U and V basis, respectively), are computed based off of a texture projection, specified on the Advanced tab (UV Basis > Texture projection). The U and V bases can be burned into a separate map from the Basis Vectors controls on this tab.

Often, the texture projection specified in the image format will be ideal for computing the basis, since this projection tends to have low sheering in the UVs.

Since the coordinate frame is defined based on the interpolated normal, burning the interpolated normal relative to the UV basis is usually not useful; it will always return (0,0,1) as the relative normal.

This representation is very useful for bump-mapping in games.

Type

You can create the normal map using any of the following types of normal:

• Interpolated Normal: This normal is the normal that is computed by interpolation across the triangle of the rendermapped surface. It is not affected by bump mapping, and is always the normal of the surface being rendermapped.

Computing this normal does not involve evaluating the surface shader, so is much faster to compute than the Sampled Normal.

• Sampled Normal: This is the normal used for shading after ray-casting and evaluating the surface color. As such, bump mapping will affect the result.

In cases where the ray-casting “catches” another surface (for example, if the Ignore RenderMapped Objects parameter, on the Advanced tab, is activated) you will get the normals of the other surface.

This is useful for computing the normals of a high-resolution object relative to the coordinate frame on a low-resolution object, defined by the U/V basis and interpolated normal.

If there is no bump mapping, and the original surface is “caught”, the sampled normal will match the interpolated normal.

• Geometric Normal: This is the normal of the geometric triangle being sampled. It is not affected by bump mapping, and is always the normal of the surface being rendermapped.

Computing this normal does not involve evaluating the surface shader, so is much faster to compute than the Sampled Normal.

Enable U/V

Activates the Basis Vectors map for the U and/or V basis vectors. The maps are now generated, along with any other active maps, when you click the Regenerate Maps button on any tab.

Destinations > U/V

Specifies where the basis vectors maps are burned:

• If you are generating a RenderMap image (Sampling is set to Entire Surface on the Basic tab) you must enter the name and destination of each image file containing a basis vectors map.

If Usr is on, the path is relative to the active project directory. If Res is on, the path is absolute. You can type a different path or use the Browse (...) button to change locations. Valid paths are displayed in white, invalid paths are red, and read-only paths are gray.

• If you are generating a RenderVertex (Sampling is set to Vertices Only on the Basic tab) you must specify a Color At Vertices property to store each basis vectors map.

Select a CAV property from the drop-down list and, if necessary, click Edit to edit its properties. Alternatively, you can click New to create a new CAV property for each basis vectors map.

Format

If you are generating a RenderMap image (Sampling is set to Entire Surface on the Basic tab), this sets the file format of the image files containing the basis vector maps. This also determines the file-name extension.

Available file formats are as follows:

• “pic” SOFTIMAGE 8-bit RGBA picture

• “bmp” uncompressed 8-bit RGB MS Windows BMP pictures

• “exr” OpenEXR

• “tiff” uncompressed 8-bit RGBA TIFF picture

• “targa” compressed 8-bit RGBA Targa pictures

• “map” Memory mapped texture image.

• “ct” mental images’ color texture image.

• “jpg” JPEG format with maximum quality

Width

If you are generating a RenderMap image (Sampling is set to Entire Surface on the Basic tab), this specifies the basis maps’ bit depth.

The options in this list vary depending on the specified Image Format. Some formats support only 8-bit, others support 8-bit and 16-bit, and still others support 8-bit, 16-bit and Float. One notable exception is the OpenEXR format, which supports “half” (16-bit float), and float.

Space

Basis vectors can be encoded in either Object space or World space:

• Object space: The vectors are represented relative to the coordinate frame of the object. Transforming the object will not have an impact on the result.

• World space: The vectors are represented relative to the scene root. Rotating and scaling the object will impact the result.

Enable

Activates the Surface Position map. The map is now generated, along with any other active maps, when you click the Regenerate Maps button on any tab.

Destination

Specifies the name and destination of the image file containing the surface position map.

If Usr is on, the path is relative to the active project directory. If Res is on, the path is absolute. You can type a different path or use the Browse (...) button to change locations. Valid paths are displayed in white, invalid paths are red, and read-only paths are gray.

Format

Sets the file format of the image file containing the surface position map. This also determines the file-name extension.

Available file formats are as follows:

• “pic” SOFTIMAGE 8-bit RGBA picture

• “bmp” uncompressed 8-bit RGB MS Windows BMP pictures

• “exr” OpenEXR

• “tiff” uncompressed 8-bit RGBA TIFF picture

• “targa” compressed 8-bit RGBA Targa pictures

• “map” Memory mapped texture image.

• “ct” mental images’ color texture image.

• “jpg” JPEG format with maximum quality

Width

Specifies the surface position map’s bit depth.

The options in this list vary depending on the specified Image Format. Some formats support only 8-bit, others support 8-bit and 16-bit, and still others support 8-bit, 16-bit and Float. One notable exception is the OpenEXR format, which supports “half” (16-bit float), and float.

Space

Surface position can be encoded in either Object space or World space:

• Object space: The position is represented relative to the coordinate frame of the object. Transforming the object will not have an impact on the result.

• World space: The position is represented relative to the scene root. Transforming the object will impact the result.

Enable

Activates the Depth map. The map is now generated, along with any other active maps, when you click the Regenerate Maps button on any tab.

Destination

Specifies the name and destination of the image file containing the depth map.

If Usr is on, the path is relative to the active project directory. If Res is on, the path is absolute. You can type a different path or use the Browse (...) button to change locations. Valid paths are displayed in white, invalid paths are red, and read-only paths are gray.

Format

Sets the file format of the image file containing the depth map. This also determines the file-name extension.

Available file formats are as follows:

• “pic” SOFTIMAGE 8-bit RGBA picture

• “bmp” uncompressed 8-bit RGB MS Windows BMP pictures

• “exr” OpenEXR

• “tiff” uncompressed 8-bit RGBA TIFF picture

• “targa” compressed 8-bit RGBA Targa pictures

• “map” Memory mapped texture image.

• “ct” mental images’ color texture image.

• “jpg” JPEG format with maximum quality

Width

Specifies the depth map’s bit depth.

The options in this list vary depending on the specified Image Format. Some formats support only 8-bit, others support 8-bit and 16-bit, and still others support 8-bit, 16-bit and Float. One notable exception is the OpenEXR format, which supports “half” (16-bit float), and float.

Regenerate Maps

Generates the RenderMap images or Color at Vertices properties defined in this property editor. If multiple rendermap properties are being inspected simultaneously, they will all be regenerated simultaneously.

Prepend owner name to file names
(RenderMap only)

Adds the name of the rendermapped object to the resulting maps’ filenames. For example, if you rendermap a cube named cube1, the resulting maps’ filenames will be cube1_filename.ext.

This option affects all maps generated by a given RenderMap property, including the Surface Color maps that you activate from the Basic Tab, and any maps that you activate on the Other Attributes tab.

Precision Datatype
(RenderVertex only)

Sets the data type for storing colors:

• Byte stores values as an integer to be interpreted as a normalized color value in the range [0.0, 1.0]. Note that while the data type is actually a short integer, only 256 levels of precision are used so it is equivalent to a single byte.

• Float (4 bytes) stores colors as floating point values. Use this option for HDR color values.

Method

Sets the sampling method. Area Weighted sampling samples every polygon that covers a texel. The resulting color is computed by averaging all the samples. Each sample is weighted by the percentage of the texel that is covered.

Simple Sampling samples once per texel (or subtexel if Super Sampling is > 1), in the very center. Therefore, only the one polygon that overlaps the center is sampled, even if there are other polygons in the texel.

Partial Texel

Defines how partial texels are handled. The Normalize option fills in the entire texel with the color of the covered part. The Blend with Background Color option fills in the uncovered part with the specified background color.

Jitter

When on, the location of each sample is shifted from its calculated position. Varying sample locations can help reduce artifacts, particularly areas where small details might be lost between samples.

When off, there is no jitter; and samples are taken at pixel (or subpixel) corners.

Jitter does not affect render time very significantly.

Spill into empty texels (RenderMap only)

Specifies how deeply the filled texels bleed into adjacent empty texels in the output image, in texels. A value of 0 results in no bleeding.

Average colors around vertices

When enabled, the colors around vertices are averaged when the RenderVertex color at vertices map (CAV) is generated.

This is useful for games development because it ensures that all samples around a vertex have the same color, and therefore leads to more efficient triangle stripping.

Enabling this option may cause color errors where the color changes drastically between polygons.

Sample inset factor (RenderVertex only)

Controls the distance between each sampled vertex and the location where the sample is actually taken.

Raising the value moves the sample location closer to the center of the triangle (a value of 1 means the sample location is at the triangle’s center). Higher values are more likely to produce artifacts in the resulting CAV.

Lowering the value moves the sample location closer to the vertex. You cannot set this value lower than 0.001. This is because RenderVertex does not sample exactly at a given vertex, but slightly inside the polygon near the vertex. This helps to ensure that the object is colored correctly at each vertex in cases where there is a drastic change in surface color.

Force Perpendicular Basis

When activated, the V-basis is changed to ensure it is perpendicular to the (current) U basis and the interpolated normal. The U-basis is then changed to ensure it is perpendicular to the new V basis and the interpolated normal. The interpolated normal itself never changes.

Automatic Basis

Deactivating this option allows you to specify a Color at Vertices (CAV) property that will be used, instead of a texture projection, to compute the UV Basis.

Texture Projection (For Automatic Generation)

Specifies the texture projection used to compute the UV Basis.

Select an existing texture projection from the drop-down menu and Click Edit to open its property page.

To create a new texture projection, click New and choose a projection type from the list.

User-Defined Basis

When the Automatic Basis option is deactivated, this parameter specifies the CAV property used to compute the UV Basis.

Distance From Surface

Sets the virtual camera’s distance from the RenderMapped objects.

Final gathering smoothness

If your object is rendered using final gathering, and you find that the rendermap output image contains undesirable artifacts, increase this value. The higher the value, the “smoother” the result.

View

Defines the viewpoint of the virtual camera as being perpendicular to the surface of the RenderMapped objects, or from the direction of the scene camera (but at the distance specified by the Distance from Surface parameter).

You can only use a scene camera to generate a surface color RenderMap or a RenderVertex. Illumination maps cannot be calculated using a scene camera.

Ignore Rendermapped Objects

When activated, RenderMap casts a ray to find the surface to be sampled, but ignores the objects affected by the RenderMap property. As a result, the color information that is computed is taken from the object the ray hits, and not the object being rendermapped.

This is useful for making sprites, and is generally preferable to the technique of putting a Constant shader with 100% transparency on the rendermapped objects.

However, the rendermapped objects will still appear in reflections and through transparent portions of the surface when the shader is evaluated. If you your scene contains reflections and transparency, using a Constant shader may still be appropriate.

This option will lead to additional rays being cast and may affect computation times.

Bidirectional Tracing

When Ignore Rendermapped Objects is activated and the virtual camera View is set to “Perpendicular to Surface”, activating this option helps in the transfer of maps from one surface to another.

When bidirectional tracing is activated, rendermap shoots each ray in both directions, if necessary, and chooses the best of the two samples. If neither sample is appropriate, both are rejected.

This is best explained by the following example:

Let’s say you want to compute a high-resolution character’s normal maps relative to a low-resolution approximated character, for use in games.

This can be achieved by making the low-resolution character transparent. The rendermap is now relative to the low-resolution character, but the ray-casting captures the color/normals of the high-resolution character.

However, this method can fail if the low-resolution character does not fully encompass the high-resolution character. When this is the case, and bidirectional tracing is activated, RenderMap first casts a ray towards the low-resolution character, but ignores it, attempting to capture the high-resolution character. If the ray misses the high-resolution character, or hits on the inside of the high-resolution character, as defined by the surface normal, a new ray is cast from the rendermapped surface, in the opposite direction.

If this second ray hits the inside of the high-resolution character, this other point is used as the cast position. If it misses the high-resolution character, it is treated as missing the object. For a normal map, this means a normal of 0,0,0 is returned (which, when biased, is .5,.5,.5).

Essentially, the optimal camera distance is chosen for every ray, resulting in much cleaner maps.

Using bidirectional tracing is preferable to increasing the Distance from Surface value to capture portions of the surface that are outside of the low-res character, increasing the distance from surface can fail in tight areas like armpits etc.: it “catches” the wrong part of the surface.

This option will lead to additional rays being cast and may affect computation times.

Front Facing Triangles

Includes front-facing-triangles in the RenderMap or RenderVertex calculation.

Back Facing Triangles

Includes back-facing-triangles in the RenderMap or RenderVertex calculation.

Regenerate Maps

Generates the RenderMap images or Color at Vertices properties defined in this property editor. If multiple rendermap properties are being inspected simultaneously, they will all be regenerated simultaneously.

Color

Defines the color used in empty areas of the output texture.

Mode

Controls the color correction mode. Choose one of the following:

Disabled: disables the color correction options.

Grayscale (Average): When selected, the RenderMap image or RenderVertex CAV map is created in grayscale, based on the average of each pixel/vertex’s RGB values.

Grayscale (Intensity): When selected, the RenderMap image or RenderVertex CAV map is created in grayscale, based on each pixel/vertex’s intensity value.

Negative: When selected, the RenderMap image or RenderVertex CAV map is created as inverted version, or negative, of the texture on the rendermapped object.

Custom: allows you to manually set the color correction options described below (gamma, contrast, and so on).

Gamma

Used to compensate for non-linearity in displays. Often used as a general brightness control.

Contrast

Increases and decreases the contrast levels between light and dark colors. 0.5 = no change in contrast.

Hue

Controls a 360 degrees hue shift through the HLS color space spectrum without modifying the intensity or saturation of the color.

Saturation

Adjusts the saturation, or amount of “pigment,” in a color. A value of 1 results in no white and all color; a value of 0 results in no color -- just white light.

Level

Adjusts the level or luminance of a color. Similar to intensity or brightness.

Samples

Specifies the number of sample rays used to determine occlusion. Higher settings produce a smoother result but take longer to generate the ambient occlusion map.

Spread

Defines the size of the cone from which sample rays are fired. A value of 0 samples only in the direction of the surface normal, while a value of 1.0 samples the entire hemisphere above the sampled point.

Dark Color

A color used to scale the ambient lighting where the object is completely occluded. If the object is partially occluded, this color is mixed with the Bright color.

Bright Color

A color used to scale the ambient lighting where the object is completely unoccluded. If the object is partially occluded, this color is mixed with the Dark color.