The display type and other display options control how elements look in the geometry views. Some display types provide less detail but are less computationally intensive than others—and this speeds up your screen refresh.
In general, you can set various display options in three ways:
• For specific objects by applying a Display property (Get > Property > Display). For this to work, you must prevent a camera or viewpoint from overriding individual object settings. This can slow down the interaction and playback speed of the view. See Setting Display Options for Individual Objects.
Display Types
The display type controls the basic appearance of objects in a geometry view. In a new scene, all views are set to Wireframe mode.
Wireframe
Shows the geometric object made up of its edges, drawn as lines resembling a model made of wire. This image displays all edges or contour lines without removing invisible or hidden parts or filling surfaces. This is the default display type in the viewport.
Reduces all scene objects to simple cubes. This speeds up the redrawing of the scene because fewer details are calculated in the screen refresh.
Depth Cue
Applies a fade to visible objects, based on their distance from the camera, in order to convey depth. You can set the depth cue range to the scene, selection, or a custom start and end point. Objects within the range fade as they near the edge of the range, while objects completely outside the range are made invisible. You can also display depth cue fog to give a stronger indication of fading. For more information about the depth cue options, see Camera Display Property Editor in the property reference.
Hidden Line Removal
Shows only the edges of objects that are facing the camera. Lines that are usually hidden from view by the surface in front of them are not displayed because they are in a “see through” wireframe.
Constant
This type ignores the orientation of surface normals and instead considers them to be pointing directly toward an infinite light source. All the object’s surface triangles are considered to have the same orientation and be the same distance from the light. This results in an object that appears to have no shading.
This mode is useful when you want to work in textures because there are no attributes to interfere with the texture’s definitions. This mode is also useful for previewing rotoscoped images.
Shaded
Provides an OpenGL hardware shaded view of your scene that closely approximates its realistic “look” but does not show shadows, reflections, or transparency. Wireframes of geometric objects are superimposed over their shaded surfaces showing you most display options, such as lines, points, tags, and centers. This makes it easy to manipulate points, lines, tagged points, etc. You can also view light (point and spot) and camera icons.
Textured
Displays textures, lighting and basic surface effects like transparency. When objects are selected, their wireframes are superimposed on their textured surfaces, showing you most components (lines, points, tags, centers, and so on). This makes it easy to manipulate points, lines, tagged points, and so on.
Textured Decal
This is like the textured, viewing mode, but textures are displayed with constant lighting. The net effect is a general “brightening” of your textures and an absence of shadow. This allows you to see a texture on any part of an object regardless of how well that part is lit.
Realtime Shaders
This displays all realtime shader attributes for objects that have been textured using realtime shaders. In the example shown here, a different texture is used to control the object’s OpenGL realtime rendering, so the result is different from what it would be in the textured or textured decal viewing modes.
Several realtime display modes are available, depending on your graphics card:
• OpenGL: displays realtime shader attributes for objects that have been textured using OpenGL realtime shaders.
• Cg: displays realtime shader attributes for objects that have been textured using Cg realtime shaders as well as Softimage’s Cg-compatible MetaShaders.
• DirectX: displays realtime shader attributes for objects that have been textured using DirectX realtime shaders.
You can set the display type and other options for a specific camera or viewpoint using the items on the view’s Display Type menu.
To set a view’s display type
• Click the view’s Display Type menu, and select a display type from the menu, for example, Shaded.
You can toggle between the previous and current display types by middle-clicking the Display Type menu. If you haven’t changed display types yet, middle-clicking toggles between Shaded and Wireframe.
To set other display options for a view
All of a camera’s or viewpoint’s display options can be set on its Camera Display property editor. To open this editor:
• Click the Display Type menu, and choose Display Options.
Some options are also available directly on the Display Type menu, for example, Override Object Properties.
You can use a Display property to set options for specific objects. New objects initially inherit the default Display property from the scene root, but you can give objects their own local property.
• You can specify the display type (shaded, wireframe, etc.) per object. To use an object’s display type, you must prevent the views from overriding it with the views’ own settings — see Using Individual Display Types in the Views.
• You can specify the color used for an object’s wireframe when it’s unselected.
There are two ways to apply a Display property:
• Applying a Display property manually allows you the most control over how an object is displayed under various conditions: selected or unselected, near or far, static or playing back or during interaction. See Applying a Display Property Manually.
• Using the Palette toolbar allows you to quickly set one of several preset values. See Using the Palette.
Using Individual Display Types in the Views
By default, all 3D views are set to override individual objects’ Display properties and show all objects in the same way. You can allow the views to draw objects according to their individual settings, but interactive and playback performance may be affected.
To use individual Display properties in a specific view
Do one of the following:
• On a view’s Display Type menu, turn off Override Object Properties.
or
• Open a view’s Camera Display property editor by choosing Display Options from its Display Type menu, and activate Mixed Viewing Mode on the Display Mode tab.
To use individual Display properties in all views
• From the main menu, choose Display > Display Options (All Cameras) and activate Mixed Viewing Mode on the Display Mode tab.
Applying a Display Property Manually
The Display property controls which display type is used to draw an object in the views (unless the view overrides object properties) as well as an object’s wireframe color.
To apply a Display property
1. Select an object, branch, group, or scene layer.
2. Choose Get > Property > Display from any toolbar.
A Display property is applied and its property editor is opened. You can set the display type to use under different conditions (selected or unselected (near) or unselected (far), and static or interactive or playback), as well as the wireframe color. For information about specific parameters, see Display Property Editor in the Property reference.
You can modify this Display property again later by clicking the object’s Display icon in an explorer.
Using the Palette
You can use the palette to set the display mode and wireframe color of objects. The same display mode is used for all viewing conditions (selected or unselected (near) or unselected (far), and static or interactive or playback). You can modify this Display property later by clicking the object’s Display icon in an explorer.
To display the palette
• At the bottom of the toolbars, click the Palette icon.
To set display mode per object using the palette
• Click a display type icon, then pick the objects to receive the associated display type. Right-click to end the picking session.
B = bounding box W = wireframe H = hidden line C = constant S = shaded T = textured D = default (based on viewport settings)
To set wireframe color per object using the palette
• Click a color swatch, then pick the objects to use that wireframe color. Right-click to end the picking session.
