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.

Gradient Mode

Linear: Creates a standard linear gradient that starts from one edge of the texture projection object and gradiates to the other.

Radial Wave: Creates a gradient that begins at the center of the texture projection and gradiates outward, in a bull’s-eye pattern.

Radial Rainbow: Also creates a rainbow-like gradient that originates at the center of the texture projection, except this mode uses a linear, symmetrical pattern.

Compact

Defines where the gradient will be compacted. The default value of 0.5 will create an even gradient with equal color distribution. A value less than 0.5 causes Color 1 to extend itself toward the gradient’s center; a value greater than 0.5 causes the last color in the gradient to extend itself (bleed) toward the center of the gradient. A value of 0 causes the gradient to display Color 0 only. A value of 1 causes the gradient to display the last color only.

Pitch

Defines how the gradient will be pinched or expanded. A value less than 0.5 pinches the gradient using the first and last colors, squeezing the colors in between. A value greater than 0.5 does the opposite and spread the gradient from the center.

X, Y

Offsets or shifts the gradient in either X and/or Y directions.

Number of Colors

Defines the number of colors the shader will use. A maximum of eight colors is accepted. To add more, use the Mix8Color shader.

Color 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Defines the color for each position from 1 to 8.

Spread Position

Defines the location of colors 2 to 7 within the color spread.

0 = low end; 1 = high end

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.

U, V, Z

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

Minimum, Maximum

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