Prev: Pattern Modules Next: Example Textures
9. The Properties Window
You now know almost everything you need to about how to use the procedure editor. There are just
a few features left to describe. These features are accessed by clicking the "Properties..."
button at the top left corner of the window. This brings up a window in which you can edit various global
properties of your procedural texture or material. Actually, the "Antialiasing" property is the
only one which applies to textures. The others are only available for materials.
Antialiasing
Textures and materials created with the procedure editor are automatically antialiased: sharp
edges and transitions are smoothed based on the image resolution, the texture scale, and the
distance of the object from the viewpoint, so as to avoid aliasing artifacts. In most cases, it
does a good job of figuring out how much smoothing to do, but occasionally you may want either
more or less smoothing than the default amount. In addition, the antialiasing algorithm can
occassionally create artifacts of its own which you would like to avoid. That is what this
parameter is for.
The default value is 1.0, which tells the renderer to do exactly as much smoothing as it thinks
is necessary. Values greater than 1.0 tell it to smooth it more, while values less than 1.0 tell
it to use less smoothing. You can turn off antialiasing altogether by setting this parameter to
0. In this case, you will need to use supersampling in the renderer to avoid aliasing effects.
Index of Refracton
The index of refraction for the material, which determines how light is bent when entering
or leaving it. The default value is 1.0, which corresponds to empty space. Here are the
indices of refraction for some common materials:
| Ice | 1.3 |
| Water | 1.33 |
| Glass | 1.6 to 1.9 |
| Diamond | 2.4 |
Integration Step Size
Materials are rendered by calculating the material properties at a series of points along
the path of any light ray passing through it. This parameter sets the spacing between these
points. You should generally set this to be equal to (or slightly less than) the size of the
smallest features in your material which need to be resolved. The default value is 0.1.
Casts Shadows
This option determines whether the material casts shadows. It is on by default.
Prev: Pattern Modules Next: Example Textures