particles_base
A particles_base material is used for particles. This material supports particles animation.
States
Rendering Passes
Passes specify during which rendering pass the material should be rendered.
Deferred Buffers
Deferred Buffers specifies if the material should be rendered during the deferred pass.
Auxiliary
Auxiliary specifies if the material should be rendered into the auxiliary color buffer to create a custom post-process effect.
Refraction
Refraction specifies if the material should be rendered during the refraction pass. Surfaces will be rendered during this pass only if they are transparent.
Refraction pass is enabled for particles in the center
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Refraction pass is disabled for particles in the center
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Ambient
Ambient specifies if the material should be rendered during the ambient light pass. Note that only transparent surfaces will be rendered.
Light Omni
Light Omni specifies if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Omni light sources during the shadow maps rendering. Note that only transparent surfaces will be rendered.
Light Proj
Light Proj specifies if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Projected light sources during the shadow maps rendering. Note that only transparent surfaces will be rendered.
Light World
Light World specifies if the material should be rendered illuminated by the World light sources during the shadow maps rendering. Note that only transparent surfaces will be rendered.
Options
Animation
Specifies if a texture with an atlas animation will be used as a diffuse one.
Soft Interaction
Provides a proper interaction of volumetric particles with other objects. It lessens the particles color depending on their position relatively to the object:
- If the depth value specifies, that the particles are in front or behind the object, they are rendered as usual.
- If the depth value between the cloud and the object is small, the color is smoothly interpolated.
The depth value can be set using the Interaction parameter. This option allows avoiding moire patterns on the objects.
Soft interaction is enabled
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Soft interaction is disabled
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Alpha Fade
Specifies if alpha fading between surfaces is used.
Disable Underwater Rendering
Disables rendering of particles underwater.
Shadows
Receive Shadows
Specifies if polygons, to which the material is applied, don't receive shadows from omni, projected or cubemap (environment probe) light sources.
Receive World Shadows
Specifies if polygons, to which the material is applied, don't receive shadows from world light sources.
Soft Shadows
Soft Shadows toggles rendering of soft shadows on and off. When enabled, the shadows become blurred on the edges.
Omni Shadow Jitter
Omni Shadow Jitter toggles jittering of shadows casted by omni lights on and off.
Lerp Cascades
Lerp Cascades toggles linear interpolation of shadows cascades on and off. When enabled, transitions between cascades become smoother. However, the option drops performance, as in the transition parts 2 shadow maps are rendered.
Soft Shadows Quality
Soft Shadows Quality specifies softness quality of shadows. The higher the value the softer (the more blurred) the shadows. The option has an effect only if Soft Shadows is enabled. Available values:
- Low - low quality
- Medium - medium quality
- High - high quality
Textures
Base Textures
Base textures are loaded and modified in the Base field of the Textures tab.
Diffuse Texture
Diffuse map. A texture to define a surface's main color.
The texture is 4-channeled (RGBA):
The diffuse texture can also store an animation atlas that is used to play animated particles (for example, the burning fire).
Attenuation Texture
Attenuation map. A texture to define the color and alpha component change throughout the particle's life time, from left to right.
The texture is 4-channeled (RGBA):
- RGB values store a color of the texture.
- An alpha (A) value contains transparency values.
An attenuation texture can be represented as a set of several textures. By using the 4th component of the Animation parameter you can specify which texture to use for the material.
Additional Textures
An additional normal texture is present only if a Refraction pass of the States tab is enabled.
Normal Texture
Normal map. A texture to store information about a surface's normals deviation.
The texture is 2-channeled (RG):
- RG values contain two components of a normal
- The third component's value is calculated from the given components in run-time
Parameters
Material Mask
Material Mask parameter specifies a decal bit-mask. If the material mask of the decal material matches the particle material, the decal will be projected.
Base Parameters
Diffuse
Diffuse is a color picker to choose the color of the diffuse map.
Diffuse = Yellow
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Diffuse = Green
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Diffuse Scale
A coefficient to scale the brightness of the diffuse map. The higher the value, the brighter the diffuse map is.
Diffuse = 0.55
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Diffuse = 1.1
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Emission Scale
Emission Scale is a multiplier for material's emission.
Environment Scale
Environment Scale is a multiplier for ambient lighting.
Animation Coordinates
Animation coordinates transformation. A vector of the 4 float components:
- X, Y - the size of the texture with the atlas animation along the X and Y axes.
- Z - the scale of the animation playback speed.
- W - Y coordinate of the attenuation texture.
Deferred Threshold
A threshold for the alpha component for the deferred pass. If the alpha component is greater than this value, the particle will be written into the deferred buffer.
Auxiliary Parameters
Auxiliary color parameter is present only if an Auxiliary pass is enabled. The parameter is modified in the Auxiliary field of the Parameters tab.
Auxiliary Color
A color picker to choose an auxiliary color for the Auxiliary rendering pass.
Auxiliary Threshold
A threshold for the alpha component for the auxiliary pass. If the alpha component is greater than this value, the particle will be written into the auxiliary buffer.
Soft Interaction Parameters
Soft interaction parameters are present only if a Soft interaction option is enabled in theStates tab.
Soft Interaction
A depth factor that controls the particles color lessening depending on their position relative to the object:
- Decreasing the value results in rendering in full color of those particles, which are positioned far from the objects.
- By 0 value, the depth value is considered to be infinity, and thus no particles will be rendered. All of them will be interpolated with the environment.
- Increasing the value results in rendering in full color more closely positioned particles. The interpolated area lessens.
Softness Multiplier
Softness Multiplier is a multiplier for shadows softness.
Refraction Parameters
Refraction parameters are present only if the Refraction pass is enabled in the States tab.
Scale
A coefficient to scale the refraction area.
- By the value of 0 there is no refraction of the light for the material.
- The higher the positive value, the more distorted the image behind the refracting material is.
- Negative values invert the direction of distortion: the lower the negative value, the bigger a distortion is.
Scale = 0.6
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Scale = 2
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Power
A coefficient to scale the refraction post-processing power. The higher the value, the less intensive (softer) refraction will be.