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DriveWorks Pro 21
Environment Settings

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Environment Settings

Environment settings allow you to control DriveWorks 3D Document properties that affect the whole scene. Settings can affect the lighting, model reflections, background colors and more.

Recommendations when using an Environment Map.

  1. Add the model into the scene (prior to adding the Environment Map).
  2. Add the Environment Map.
    • Rotate as needed
    • Adjust the exposure
    • Set a maximum brightness, if the image used is very bright
  3. Add any lights required into the scene.
  4. Finally adjust the brightness/contrast to the required levels.

    (And leave tone mapping at max)

Information Panel

Parameters in the Information Panel will be locked if rules have been applied to the corresponding value in the Parameter Panel.

With Environment selected in the Feature Panel the following will be displayed in the Information Panel:

General

  • Use environment map

    Checking this allows Use Environment Map Lighting and Display Sky Box to be set.

    In the Environment Map section of the Information Panel, you can adjust the parameters: Exposure, Rotation and Maximum Brightness.

    Checking Use environment map will allow the environment map to be used in model reflections. High reflectivity models will reflect the sky box in the model.

    No Environment MapWith Environment Map
  • Use environment map lighting

    Will use the lighting from the Environment Map images. Light areas in the images will appear as light areas on the model.

  • Display sky box

    Will display the sky scene around the model.

  • Display Default Camera

    Will display the Document's Default Camera. Used to hide the Default Camera when Camera Entities are being used in a Document.

Environment Map

The following settings can be applied to the Environment Map:

  • Exposure

    This is essentially brightness for the Environment Map.

    Exposure is slightly different to brightness, in that it’s applied on a curve so bright parts get brighter faster than dark parts.

    Typical values vary depending on how bright the scene is required to be and the image used.

    For JPG/PNG images, optimal values will be between 0.5 and 3.

    HDRI images can be extremely bright so lower values would be more realistic, possibly 0.1 or so.

  • Rotation

    This rotates the Environment Map in degrees.

    Its main use is when the Environment Map is displayed as a skybox.

    Typical values are between 0-360 degrees.

  • Maximum Brightness

    This limits the maximum brightness (typically applied to extremely bright HDRI images, that capture the sun for example) which can play havoc with reflections and bloom post effects. This can also happen if there is a really high exposure setting in the image.

    Typical values, can be left at 100 unless the image has bright spots, in which case reduce this value.

Background Color

Sets the color to use for the background (not applicable when using sky box).

Will apply a hexadecimal value to the Background Color in the Parameter Panel.

  • Red - a number from 0 to 255
  • Green - a number from 0 to 255
  • Blue - a number from 0 to 255
  • Alpha - (Transparency) a number from 0 to 255

Ambient Light Color

  • Red - a number from 0 to 1
  • Green - a number from 0 to 1
  • Blue - a number from 0 to 1
  • Intensity - a number from -x to +x

Color Adjustments

  • Tone Mapping Strength

    This adjusts the maximum value for the tone mapping.

    Tone mapping puts color brightness on a curve, so there is more room to calculate colors in the renderer, then bring them back into a range displayable on a monitor. This allows a much greater range in light brightness levels but reduces contrast.

    A value of 0 keeps colors the same, a maximum of 1 gives a cap of 5 on the curve.

    Typically this can be set at 1.

    The image above shows the curve where (in the renderer) brightness is on the bottom, to the final displayed brightness on the left (1 is the maximum a monitor can display).

    The blue line is the maximum tone mapping of 1. The red line is the minimum tone mapping of 0.

    The curve is x / ( x + 0.187) * 1.035

    Where x is the tone mapping value.

  • Brightness

    Brightness is a literal brightness multiplier.

    Typical values are between 0.5 and 2.0.

  • Contrast

    Contrast shifts colors away from the mid range. So it makes dark colors darker and bright colors brighter.

    Range of the slider is -1 to 1. Where -1 will be no contrast and will make the entire scene mid-gray. 0 is no change and 1 will significantly increase the contrast.

Camera Effects

The following Camera Effects are available for the Environment:

Anti Aliasing

See Anti Aliasing for more information about the settings below:.

  • None
  • Performance
  • Balanced
  • Quality

Ambient Occlusion

See Ambient Occlusion for more information about the settings below:

  • Ambient Occlusion Enabled
  • Exponent
  • Falloff Depth
  • Radius
  • Intensity
  • Downsampling
  • Blur Passes

Bloom

See Bloom for more information about the settings below:

  • Bloom Enabled
  • Radius
  • Intensity
  • Threshold
  • Downsampling
  • Blur Passes

Vignette

See Vignette for more information about the settings below:

  • Vignette Enabled
  • Intensity
  • Exponent
  • Shape
  • Inner Area Size
  • Color:
    • Red - a number from 0 to 255
    • Green - a number from 0 to 255
    • Blue - a number from 0 to 255
    • Alpha - (Transparency) a number from 0 to 255

Depth of Field

See Depth of Field for more information about the settings below:

  • Depth of Field Enabled
  • Focus Target
  • Focus Distance
  • Focus Size
  • Near Falloff
  • Far Falloff
  • Blur Radius
  • Downsampling
  • Blur Passes

Screen Space Reflections

See Screen Space Reflections for more information about the settings below:

  • Screen Space Reflections Enabled
  • Quality (dropdown menu): Custom, Low, Medium, High
  • Resolution
  • Refinement
  • Intensity
  • Thickness
  • Falloff Sharpness
  • Scatter
  • Blur Intensity
  • Blur Passes

Edge Sketch

See Edge Sketch for more information about the settings below:

  • Edge Sketch Enabled
  • Line Thickness
  • Normal Threshold
  • Depth Exponent
  • Edge Color

Outline Glow

See Outline Glow for more information about the settings below:

  • Outline Glow Enabled
  • Glow Size
  • Downsampling
  • Glow Color

Parameter Panel

Changes made to values in the Information Panel will update the results in the Parameters Panel, unless rules have been applied.

With Environment checked in the Feature Panel the following will be displayed in the Parameters Panel:

  • Environment Map

    Adjust Exposure, Rotation and Maximum Brightness

  • Ambient Light Red

    A number from 0 to 1

  • Ambient Light Green

    A number from 0 to 1

  • Ambient Light Blue

    A number from 0 to 1

  • Ambient Light Intensity

    A number from -X to +X

  • Background Color

    Sets the color to use for the background (not applicable when using sky box). Requires a hexadecimal value.

  • Use environment map lighting

    True use the default lighting applied to the environment.

  • Use environment map

    True to allow Map Lighting and Sky Box values to be honored.

  • Display Skybox

    True to display the sky scene around the model.

  • Display Default Camera

    True to display the Document's Default Camera. False to hide it.

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