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DriveWorks Pro 24
Emissive Bump

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Emissive Bump - Render Property

The Emissive Bump render property gives your model the appearance of being illuminated. This is useful because it adds another level of realism to your 3D models. The Emissive Bump render property causes the model to be self-illuminated which results in the model looking bright or like a light.

This render property lets you add an emissive texture to your 3D Appearance. As well as the Emissive texture you can also set a Diffuse, Specular and Bump Texture. The Emissive Bump render property is the same as the Bump render property but it can use an extra Emissive texture. This lets you create any normal surface and then add emissive areas where they are required.

The Emissive Texture can make a complete surface emissive or it can make a specific part of the model emissive. It depends how the texture is mapped to the models surface.

An Emissive Appearance is not a light. No light will be cast onto other models like a light source. An Emissive Appearance is only self illuminating. However post effects such as Bloom will still interact with the Emissive appearance.
Without Emissive TextureWith Emissive Texture & Bloom

Without an emissive texture the model will simply use the diffuse color or diffuse texture. When an Emissive texture is added it adds an emissive area to the model. The emissive texture gives certain areas of the model emission or a glow. This results in these areas being self-illuminated.

In the above image the emissive texture being used is a 1 x 1 pixel red image. That is all that is needed to give this emissive effect. This is a small file that is easy to upload and use on the model.

Setting up an Appearance to use the Emissive Bump render property

  1. In a DriveWorks 3D Document, navigate to and select an Appearance.
  2. In the Information Panel select the Render Properties drop down.
  3. Select Emissive Bump from the drop down list.
  4. Select the Alpha Mode required for images applied to the PBR Advanced render property.

    Alpha Mode allows images with transparency to display any objects or scenes behind them.

    See Alpha Mode below for more information.

Alpha Mode

Alpha Mode allows images with transparency to display any objects or scenes behind them.

For Render Properties, other than Glass, the Alpha Mode can be set to:

  • Default

    Will display any alpha in the image as fully visible.

  • Cutout

    Will display any alpha in the image as fully visible or fully transparent, depending on the Cutout Threshold.

    • Cutout Threshold

      Set a value between 0 and 255 for the threshold to use to determine the pixels that will be displayed.

Using images with transparency, with the Cutout Alpha Mode, can enhance the DriveWorks 3D model by reducing the need for complex geometry.

For example, the image below:

Can be applied, as an appearance, to a Model.

The gray and white chequered background represents the alpha channel used in the image.

The Alpha Mode settings applied are shown in the table below:

DefaultCutout

Render Property Settings

The settings available on the Emissive Bump render property are grouped into the following categories:

Diffuse Color settings

Sets the color to use for the diffuse color of the Appearance.

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

  • Red

    Modifies the amount of red in the Diffuse Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

  • Green

    Modifies the amount of green in the Diffuse Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

  • Blue

    Modifies the amount of blue in the Diffuse Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

  • Alpha

    Controls the alpha channel or transparency of the Diffuse Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

    If the geometry wih the Diffuse Color applied is to have Shadow Casting or Edge Sketch applied, the appearance is required to be fully opaque.

    The alpha applied needs to be exactly 255. Anything less than this value is considered not fully opaque.

  • Ambient Intensity

    Controls the ambient intensity of the Appearance as a whole. Enter a number.

  • Diffuse Intensity

    Controls the intensity of the Diffuse Color/Texture. Enter a number.

  • Emissive Intensity

    Controls the intensity of the emitted light. Enter a number.

Specular Color settings

Image showing the Specular Color user interface in a 3D Document

Sets the color to use for the specular.

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

  • Red

    Modifies the amount of red in the Specular Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

  • Green

    Modifies the amount of green in the Specular Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

  • Blue

    Modifies the amount of blue in the Specular Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

  • Intensity

    Controls the intensity of the specular highlight on an Appearance. Enter a number.

  • Reflectivity

    Controls the amount of reflectivity of an Appearance. Enter a number from 0 and above.

Texture Offset settings

Image showing the Texture Offset user interface in a 3D Document

  • Offset X

    Offset an applied texture in the X Axis. Allows you to position textures accurately on surfaces. Enter a number.

  • Offset Y

    Offset an applied texture in the Y Axis. Allows you to position textures accurately on surfaces. Enter a number.

Texture Transforms settings

Image showing the Texture Transforms user interface in a 3D Document

  • Scale X

    Modifies the scale of a texture to suit the size of the model.

    Enter a number from 0 and above.

    See Scaling Textures below for information on how scaling affects the applied texture image.

  • Scale Y

    Modifies the scale of a texture to suit the size of the model.

    Enter a number from 0 and above.

    See Scaling Textures below for information on how scaling affects the applied texture image.

  • Angle

    Change the rotation of a texture on a model. Enter a number from 0 to 360.

Scaling Textures

The scale of a texture is applied differently when World Position Textures is enabled.

  • When World Position Textures is Disabled:

    A scale of 0.5 will stretch or shrink half of a texture repetition over the corresponding axis of the geometry it is applied to.

    A scale of 1 will stretch or shrink one full texture repetition over the corresponding axis of the geometry it is applied to.

    A scale of 2 will stretch or shrink two full texture repetition over the corresponding axis of the geometry it is applied to.

    For example:

    Geometry Scale in the X and Y axis = 0.5 (meters)

    Texture Transform Scale X and Y axis = 1

    Will result in one full texture repetition over the 0.5 meter of the X and Y axis.

  • When World Position Textures is Enabled:

    A scale of 0.5 will apply half of a texture repetition over a 1 meter length in the corresponding axis.

    A scale of 1 will apply one full texture repetition over a 1 meter length in the corresponding axis.

    A scale of 2 will apply two full texture repetition over a 1 meter length in the corresponding axis.

    For example:

    Geometry Scale in the X and Y axis = 0.5 (meters)

    Texture Transform Scale X and Y axis = 1

    Will result in half a full texture repetition over the 0.5 meter of the X and Y axis.

World Position Textures

World Position textures allow seamless texturing over multiple models.

To understand how a World Position Texture is scaled see Texture Transforms settings above.

World Position Textures DisabledWorld Position Textures Enabled
The same textured appearance applied to multiple geometries does not flow seamlessly when one of the geometries differs in size.Enabling World Position Textures allows the same texture to flow into geometries with a different size without the need for complex calculations to scale the texture.

The following parameters can be selected:

Checking each checkbox will add that world position axis value at each pixel's location, to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

This has the effect of making the texture flow along that axis in world space.

  • Enabled

    Checking this will enable World Position Textures.

    A rule can also be built for this from the parameter panel by selecting the Enabled (with the address WorldPositionEnabled) property.

  • Horizontal
    • X

      Checked by default

      Check to add the horizontal X axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

    • Y

      Unchecked by default

      Check to add the horizontal Y axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

    • Z

      Checked by default

      Check to add the horizontal Z axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

  • Vertical
    • X

      Unchecked by default

      Check to add the vertical X axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

    • Y

      Checked by default

      Check to add the vertical Y axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

    • Z

      Unchecked by default

      Check to add the vertical Z axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

Diffuse Texture

Image showing the Diffuse Texture user interface in a 3D Document

  • Texture

    Select a diffuse texture from the list of available textures in the Document. Alternatively you can browse for a texture or build a rule to the path of a new texture.

Specular Texture settings

Image showing the Specular Texture user interface in a 3D Document

  • Texture

    Select a specular texture from the list of available textures in the Document. Alternatively you can browse for a texture or build a rule to the path of a new texture.

Normal Texture

Image showing the Normal Texture user interface in a 3D Document

  • Texture

    Select a normal texture from the list of available textures in the Document. Alternatively you can browse for a texture or build a rule to the path of a new texture.

Emissive Texture

Image showing the Emissive Texture user interface in a 3D Document

  • Texture

    Select an emissive texture from the list of available textures in the Document. Alternatively you can browse for a texture or build a rule to the path of a new texture.

Using the Emissive Bump render property

The Emissive Bump render property can be used in several ways. An Emissive Texture can be used with a Diffuse, Specular or Normal Texture, or without any of these textures. You can also use combinations of textures depending on the outcome you need.

Diffuse Color and Emissive Texture

Simple colors can be applied to the surface of a model. An emissive texture can then be added to give areas of the model emission. In the lift buttons above a diffuse color is used with a simple 1 x 1 pixel emissive texture. This is enough to illuminate the buttons.

Diffuse Texture, Specular Texture, Normal Texture and Emissive Texture

A Diffuse texture can also be used with an Emissive texture. The Diffuse texture can be used instead of the Diffuse Color.

A Diffuse texture adds additional detail to the Appearance and the surface of the model. Areas of the diffuse texture can be illuminated with an Emissive Texture. In the images below the diffuse texture has been used to create an emissive texture. Certain tiles have been illuminated in the image. The emissive texture is combined with the diffuse texture to give the effect you see below.

Diffuse Texture without Emissive TextureDiffuse Texture with Emissive Texture
Bloom is also effected by the Emissive texture. Bright areas will be effected by bloom and look brighter as if they are emitting light. The addition of an emissive texture can make a model more realistic.

The textures below were used to make the tiled floor above.

Black areas in the Emissive texture will not self-illuminate. This is how you get certain areas to be emissive and other areas to look regular.

Emissive Texture Examples

Other Render Properties

DriveWorks has other render properties available to use on an Appearance.

These add different levels of realism to an Appearance.