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billboards_base

A billboards_base material creates coverings for multiple Billboards.

States

In this tab you can set available settings and options:

States

Material Editor, billboards_cloud_base material, States tab.

Passes

  • Deferred - all lights are rendered deferred.
  • Auxiliary - enable additional auxiliary texture.

Deferred Pass

Indicates that all lights influencing billboards will be computed by means of deferred shading. If disabled, forward shading will be used instead. Forward shading allows making billboards semi-transparent.

Auxiliary Pass

Auxiliary pass is used for writing the contour of object with the specified material into an auxiliary color buffer.

Options

  • Axis X - lock a billboard along the X axis.
  • Axis Z - lock a billboard along the Z axis.
  • Screen aligned - set billboards parallel to each other.
  • Angular size - set billboards to always be of the same size regardless to the camera position.
  • Ambient emission - enables an additional emission texture providing the ambient emission effect.
  • Shadow shafts - simulates visible volumetric shadows, arising when a bright world light source is partially obscured by the object.

Axis X

Locks billboards orientation along the X axis (by default billboards always face the camera).

Lock X is disabled Lock X is enabled
Disabled Lock X
Enabled Lock X

Axis Z

Locks billboards orientation along the Z axis (by default billboards always face the camera). Billboards can be also locked along both X and Z axes, so they will be oriented perpendicularly to Y axis.

Lock Z is disabled Lock X and Lock Z are enabled
Enabled Lock Z
Enabled Lock X and Lock Z

Screen Aligned

Set billboards parallel to each other. If they are not axes-locked, they will be oriented strictly towards to the screen plane.

Screen aligned is disabled Screen aligned is enabled
Disabled Screen aligned
Enabled Screen aligned

Angular Size

Sets billboards to always be of the same size regardless to the camera position.

Angular size is disabled Angular size is enabled
Disabled Angular size
Enabled Angular size

Textures

In the Textures tab of the Material Editor you can:

  • Load the textures - click a Load button near the texture and specify the path to the texture or type the path in the texture field manually
  • Open the view window to see texture's details - click a View button near the texture
  • Set the current texture to default one - click a Set to parent button near the texture (if the texture is different from the default one, its field will be highlighted with green)

The textures available for billboards are listed below.

Base Textures

Base textures are loaded and modified in the Base field of the Textures tab.

GUI name XML name Description Channels
Diffuse diffuse Diffuse map. A texture to define a surface's main color. RGBA:
  • RGB values store a color of the texture
  • An alpha (A) value provides detail texture modulation and stores transparency values
Notice
An alpha (A) value will store transparency values if an Alpha test option is enabled. Otherwise it will store a detail mask.
Normal normal Normal map. A texture to store information about a surface's normals deviation. RG:
  • RG values contain two components of a normal
  • The third component's value is calculated from the given components in run-time
Specular specular Specular map. A texture to define a surface's shininess and highlight color. RGBA:
  • RGB values store reflection color and intensity (black color means no reflection)
  • An alpha (A) value specifies the specular power: 0 means specular highlights are very bright and intense, 256 - specular highlights are dull
Notice
The above textures with the _d, _n and _s postfixes in the name respectively, located in a folder named uncompressed, will be automatically compressed by the engine.

Additional Textures

Additional emission texture is present only if an Ambient emission option is enabled and is modified in the Additional field of the Textures tab.

GUI name XML name Description Channels
Emission emission Emission map. A texture to store information about the light emission. RGBA:
  • RGB values store a glowing color
  • An alpha (A) value stores a glow mask: black is for non-glowing areas, white - for glowing ones

Parameters

In the Parameters tab you can set or modify base and additional parameters.

Parameters of different types are set in different ways:

  • expression - vector values can be set either in the field near the parameter or in the dialog window opened when double clicking this field
  • slider - the value can be set either by smoothly moving the slider of the scroll box or manually in the box near the parameter (if required, the value bigger than maximum one for the slider can be set)
  • color - the color can be chosen in the dialog window, activated after double clicking the color field

All the parameters can be set to default ones - click a Set to parent button near the parameter (if the parameter is different from the default one, its field will be highlighted with green).

The parameters available for this kind of materials are listed below.

Transform Parameters

Texture transformation parameter is modified in the Transform field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Base base_transform expression Base texture coordinates transformation. A vector of the four float components, consisting of two pairs of vector elements:
  1. Scale texture coordinates, along X and Y axes. For example, by the scale of 2;2 the texture will be repeated four times on the surface.
  2. An offset of the texture respectively to its initial position along X and Y axes.

    For example, by the offset of 0.5 along X axis the texture will be repositioned to the right (so the left edge of the texture will be rendered in the center).

Notice
Besides the native texture coordinates transformation, there are more options of setting texture coordinates. They are described in the Texture coordinates transformation article.

Auxiliary Parameters

Auxiliary color parameter is present only if an Auxiliary pass is set as a Default. The parameter is modified in the Auxiliary field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Auxiliary auxiliary_color color A color picker to choose an auxiliary color for the Auxiliary rendering pass.

Ambient Parameters

Ambient parameter is modified in the Ambient field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Environment environment_scale slider Environment lighting scale. A coefficient to scale how much the global environment texture illuminates the surface.

The higher the value, the more the colors will be corrected (lightened or darkened) according to the environment component.

Emission Parameters

Emission parameters are present only if an Ambient emission option is enabled and are modified in the Emission field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Color emission_color color

A color picker to choose an ambient emission color for the emission texture.

Scale emission_scale slider Visibility scale for the emission texture.

The higher the value, the more visible emission texture is: light areas will be lighter and brighter.
Glow glow_scale slider A coefficient to scale the glow component of the emission texture, which creates a halo around an object surface.

The higher the value, the larger the halo and the brighter the material.
Notice
To increase the glow parameter a lot, go to the Render settings -> Postprocess tab -> Glow small parameter to increase the glow throughout in the scene. After that, readjust the glow on the per-material basis.

Shading Parameters

Shading parameters are modified in the Shading field of the Parameters tab.

GUI name XML name Type Description
Diffuse diffuse_color color

A color picker to choose the color of the diffuse map.

Diffuse diffuse_scale slider A coefficient to scale the brightness of the diffuse map.

The higher the value, the brighter the diffuse map is.
Specular specular_color color

A color picker to choose the color of the specular map.

Specular specular_scale slider A coefficient to scale the brightness of the specular map reflections.

The default value of 1 grants the correct color. The higher the value, the brighter the specular reflections are.
Glossiness specular_power slider

A coefficient to modify size of the highlight (Phong lighting) of the specular map:

  • Low values imitate wider highlights, typically appropriate to create diffuse reflection from the mat surface
  • High values imitate pinpoint highlights, typically appropriate to create uniform reflection of light rays from the glossy surface
Last update: 2017-07-03
Build: ()