3.16 The Preferences Window

3.16.1 Overview
3.16.2 File Viewing Applications
3.16.3 Shaders

3.16.1 Overview

The 3Delight preferences window contains settings that remains effective across all Maya scenes.

3.16.2 File Viewing Applications

Figure 3.69: The File Viewing Applications Preferences

It is possible to define which application will be used to visualize the following file types:

` RIB'

This application will be launched to view RIB files. The default application is WordPad on Windows and TextEdit on Mac OSX. There is no default application on Linux.

` Log'

This application will be launched to view rendering log files. The default application is WordPad on Windows and Console on Mac OSX. There is no default application on Linux.

` Image'

This application will be launched to view images. The default application is i-display on all platforms.

` Shadowmap'

This application will be launched to view shadow maps. The default application is i-display on all platforms.

` Photonmap'

This application will be launched to view photon maps. The default application is ptcview on all platforms.

` Statistics'

This application will be launched to view statistics output by the rendering process. The default application is Internet Explorer on Windows, Safari on Mac OSX and Firefox on Linux.

3.16.3 Shaders

Figure 3.70: The Shaders Preferences

Shader Preview

The options presented in this tab affect the shader nodes preview swatch visible when a shader node is displayed in the attribute editor. The shader preview can also be launched in i-display via the Preview Shaders contextual menu option in the 3Delight Relationship Editor

` Primitive'

This attribute determines the geometry that is rendered when previewing a shader. The available values are:

` Sphere'

The shader will be applied to a sphere. This is the default.

` Teapot'

The shader will be applied to a teapot.

` Custom'

The shader will by applied to the RIB file specified in the "Primitive RIB Archive".

` Primitive RIB archive'

This attribute specifies the path to a RIB archive that is assumed to contain the geometry to be used for preview renders. This attribute is available only when "Primitive" is set to `Custom'. The RIB file should contain geometry centered at the origin that has no shaders. This attribute is empty by default.

` Primitive Scale'

This attribute specifies the scaling factor to apply on the shader preview primitive. It is set to `1.0' by default.

` Shading Rate'

This attribute specifies the shading rate to use for preview renders. It is set to `1.0' by default.

Shader Nodes

` Hide Attributes'

Shader nodes with a lot of parameters tend to display slowly in the attribute editor. This attribute specifies the number of shader parameters over which 3Delight for Maya will automatically set all shader parameter attributes as hidden. Hidden attributes are ignored by all Maya editors; they will still be displayed in the attribute editor but not in any other maya editor. Hidden attributes speed up the attribute editor refreshes quite a bit. It is possible to hide or unhide attributes on a per-shader basis by selecting the `Hide Shader Attributes' toggle in the contextual menu shown when right-clicking on a shader node in the 3Delight Relationship Editor or inside the Attribute Editor while it is displaying a shader node.

3Delight for Maya 6.0. Copyright 2000-2011 The 3Delight Team. All Rights Reserved.