Realistic Rendering and Material Appearance

Realistic Rendering is a new graphics mode that is based off of the physically based rendering model approach that allows for the flow of light to be rendered more accurately as it would be in the real world.

There are now three types of rending modes available for your HyperView session.

Regular Mode

The standard graphics rendering mode.

Realistic Rendering Mode

This mode uses the physically based lighting approach.

Realistic Rendering Mode + Environment Map

This mode uses the physically based lighting approach with an environment cube map reflection.

Attention: This is the preferred mode to view the Realistic Rendering Mode.

Added to the Realistic Rendering mode is the set of material library consisting of metals and non-metals. Metals contain a list of hard metals and non-metals consist of a paint and other categories. These items are a non-editable predefined list of materials. However, custom materials based off of these predefined material attributes can be created. These attributes are defined as:

Shininess: Used to control the specular light settings. Values between 0-128 can be used.
Alpha: Used to control the transparency level. 0 is fully transparent and 1 is fully opaque.
Metallic: Used to measure if something is a metal or non-metal. The metallic attribute is binary, meaning 0 is a non-metal and 100 means it is a metal. The values can range from 0-100 for a smoother transition from metal to non-metal.
Roughness: Used to diffuse light from a reflected environment source to create the appearance of a rough and smooth surface. This is used with the environment map. Values range from 0-100, where 0 is smooth and 100 is rough.
RGB: The RGB color used for that material appearance.

Click Material Appearance , on the Display toolbar to display the Material Appearance dialog.

This dialog shows the list of materials and their associate icon (sphere) of the predefined set of materials. The left-hand column shows the Metals, Non-Metals and Custom Materials categories along with the Environment Maps section. Selecting the material will automatically select the Material Appearance check box and populate the left bottom half of the column with the material name and its associated values for its attributes. These cannot be changed for the predefined materials, however they can be copied to create a custom material. The selected material can then be applied to any component on the model.

Enable Realistic Rendering: Sets the rendering mode to the new physically based lighting mode.
Enable Environment Mapping: Sets the cube map used in the physically based rendering mode.
Note: This is only active if the Enable Realistic Rendering mode is active.
Apply to Browser Selection: This option allows for this dialog to interact directly with the Results Browser. This will allow for advanced searches and bulk changes to be made with ease.
Material Appearance: Enable material appearance on the model.
Shading: Allows for the lighting to be changed from flat light shading to smooth light shading. Smooth lighting is preferred when using the Realistic Rendering mode.

To create a custom material from the base attributes of a predefined material, simply right-click on one of the materials and select Create Material.

This will create a Custom category material named the material that you selected with an iterated number. For example, if Copper was selected to create a material, Copper 1 will now appear under Custom with the base values of the Copper predefined material.