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.

Snow

Defines the color of the snow. Unless you are simulating another planet or a layer of ash, this should be white.

Surface

Defines the color of the surface beneath the layer of snow.

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.

Threshold

Defines the maximum slope at which snow sticks to an object.

High for snowdrifts; low for wet, heavy snow

Maximum Thickness

Defines the maximum overall thickness of the snow.

Depth Decay

Defines how much the snow thickness decreases with the increasing slope. The higher the value, the sharper the changes between the snow and the surface underneath.

Randomness

Controls the random variations in the snow’s thickness. A value of 0 will probably result in unrealistic-looking snow. Remember that wind and terrain usually cause snow to fall unevenly, hence this parameter.

Random Frequency

Defines the frequency of the snow thickness variation. A high value will result in quick, jagged peaks and valleys of snow, whereas a lower value will smooth out the layer of snow.

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.