Objects - Display
- thomas (Unlicensed)
The "Display" panel is not just a handy method to switch an object’s visibility on and off, it also provides some features to repair and visualize normals. This can become very important if you have to check inside or outside collision methods or fix errors.
Please also take a look at the "Quick Start Tutorials" chapter for more information about "Using Textures" and "Wetmap Creation".
Visible
Use this function to turn the object’s visibility on or off.
Show normals
You can decide whether you want to see the surface normals or not. This is important when fluid-object or object-object interactions appear to be wrong or for the detection of corrupted polygons.
Show velocity
Animated and dynamically driven objects always have a certain linear and angular velocity, which can be displayed here. If the node is in rigid or soft body mode, this field shows the appropriate velocities for the item’s vertices. Please note that the illustration of velocity vectors can be fairly large.
Show CG
When set to “Yes” you can see the node’s centre of gravity. In most cases you have to switch to the viewport’s wireframe mode to see the centre of gravity.
Show Path
You can also specify whether you want to see the node’s animation path or not.
Normal size
Here, you can determine the length of the normals shown in the viewport.
Normal type
You can choose from “Face”, “Vertex” and “VtxFace”. “Face” displays the normals of polygons, “Vertex” for each point, and “VtxFace” shows both types simultaneously.
Normal facing
From time to time it happens that objects are exported with flipped normals. This influences the behaviour in fluid-object and object-object interactions. To fix this problem without having to export the object(s) again, simply press this button and all normals are reversed.
Texture
With this feature it is possible to attach different textures for each object individually. You can choose from a variety of pre-built types by simply selecting one from the menu. If you do not have loaded a texture, but switch to one of the available option, the object is shown in “Smooth shaded” mode with its standard colour from Node > Color.
| None | This is the default selection and the object uses the currently specified colour. |
|---|---|
| Object | You can add a diffuse texture under Texture > Load Texture. Bump maps, displacement, transparency etc. are not supported. |
| WetDry | To make use of this feature, the “WetDry texture” option in the “Texture” panel has to be activated. As long as there is no interaction between standard particles and the object, it will be displayed completely black. Wet-dry textures are also called wetmaps and they are updated during the simulation. It is also possible to create a preview from the wetmap pass. Wetmaps require a correctly relaxed UV grid. An evenly lit grey surface is a clear sign for a corrupted UV grid. In this case, please return to your 3D software, rebuild the UV's and export the object(s) again. Please bear in mind that wetmaps cannot be created from grid fluids. Secondary elements (splashes, foam), on the other hand, are standard particles and will leave marks on the surface. |
| Collision tolerance | Instead of a fixed “Collision tolerance” value you can use a grey-scale map as well (animated maps are also supported). The used map can be made visible with this option. |
| Particle friction | This option works exactly as “Collision tolerance” and describes the friction of standard particles. |
| Grid friction | The mode of operation is the same as described under “Collision tolerance”, but shows the friction map in combination with grid fluids. |
| Sticky | Here you can make “Sticky” maps visible. Please see “Collision tolerance” for more information. |
| Roughness | The last parameter again works exactly as previously described. |