Name

The shader’s name. Enter any name you like, or leave the default.

Texture Space

Defines the texture space the texture will be applied to. The projection can be defined per object or to all objects in the selection.

Object Selection: When multiple objects are selected, defines whether changes are applied to all objects or a specific one. This control updates automatically as you select objects in the scene, as long as the property editor is not locked.

Property Selection: Lets you choose a Texture Support. If no texture support has been defined, you can create one by clicking New. If a texture projection is already defined, you can edit it by clicking Edit.

Edit: Opens the Texture Support property page for the defined texture projection.

New: Defines the new texture projection to be created. You can choose from the following:

• UV: Projects the texture along the U and V.

• Planar XY: Projects the texture on X and Y coordinates only.

• Planar XZ: Projects the texture on X and Z coordinates only.

• Planar YZ: Projects the texture on Y and Z coordinates only.

• Cylindrical: Projects the texture as though it is a cylinder wrapped around an object.

• Spherical: Surrounds the object with a spherical mapping across the whole surface with some distortion.

• Spatial: The texture is centered on the scene’s origin.

• Cubic: Applies the texture onto the object by first assigning the object’s polygons to faces of a cube, and then projecting the texture onto each face by default. The layout of a cubic projection can be completely customized using the options in the Texture Support property editor.

• Camera Projection: The texture is mapped relative to the camera’s center. In this coordinate system, the camera is the center of the “world,” with an up vector, looking toward the negative Z axis. The result resembles an image projected from a camera. The texture will move with the camera and will be affected by any scaling, rotation, and translation.

• Unique Uvs (Polymesh): Applies a texture to polygon objects by assigning each polygon’s UV coordinates to its own distinct piece of the texture so that no two polygons’ coordinates overlap each other.

• Advanced: Opens the Create Texture Support property page from which you can explicitly define a texture projection.

Enable

Switches bump mapping on or off.

Bump Map Factor

Defines how “bumpy” the bump map will be. A negative value inverts the bump inward; a positive bump map factor bumps outward.

Use Alpha

Uses the texture’s alpha channel to achieve a bump map.

Color 1

Defines the first color of the fractal pattern.

Color 2

Defines the second color of the fractal pattern.

Copy Alpha to RGB

Multiplies the RGB channels with the alpha channel by the factor defined in the Alpha Strength parameter.

Alpha Strength

Determines the factor by which the Alpha is multiplied with the RGB channels.

Noise Type

Lets you select two noise functions to build the fractal: Perlin and Recursive.

Diffusion

Controls how much of the normal area diffuses into the threshold area.

Upper Bound

Defines at what level the fractal is clipped; i.e., the level won’t get higher. This creates “flat tops” in the fractal.

Complexity

Defines the maximum number of noise iterations to use when calculating the fractal. This parameter works in conjunction with the Minimum Level value in determining the complexity of the fractal. The more constraining of the two limits is used.

Minimum Level

Defines the minimum amplitude at which iteration will occur. It is used to determine how often the noise function is called. A value of 0.1 means that noise amplitude less than 0.1 will not be added to the fractal, and iteration will cease. This parameter can be used to control the amount of detail in the texture, hence the granularity.

Level Decay

Controls the amplitude decay of the fractal iterations. It is defined as the amplitude ratio of two successive iterations.

For values less than 1, successive iterations have decreasing amplitude; for values greater than 1, they increase in amplitude and the fractal becomes unbounded.

Frequency Multiplier

Controls the frequency multiplier for subsequent iterations. Fractal frequency is simply the inverse of scale. Doubling the frequency with the Frequency Multiplier is the same as scaling down the texture by a factor of 0.5; 1.0 gives a sharp fractal texture with low detail, and 2.0 gives a more detailed and varying texture.

Threshold

Below the threshold level, the fractal will be set to black.

Time

Animates the fractal in time. This is achieved by animating the value of this parameter. If you change the value between frames, the fractal texture will change in a continuous manner between these frames.

Absolute

Makes the fractal procedure use a slightly different algorithm, which causes discontinuities in the fractal itself. This creates the impression of turbulence.

Step

Controls the U, V, and Z steps of a bump map. Use this parameter to “smooth” bumps or make them more jagged.

U, V, Z

Specifies whether every other copy of the repetition should be reversed so that the successive copies of the texture are alternated.

Texture Repeats

Contains the repetition factor in X,Y, and Z. A value of 2, for example, shrinks the texture so that it fits twice in a [0..1] interval.

Minimum, Maximum

Determines the remapping of the texture image. For a 2D image, only X and Y are used.