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billboards_base

A billboards_base material creates coverings for multiple Billboards.

States

In the States tab you can set rendering passes and available options. Enabling some of the states activates additional textures and parameters in the Textures and Parameters tabs respectively.

The states divide into 2 groups: Passes and Options.

Possible values for an Ambient pass:

GUI name XML name Description
Skip none Material is not rendered.
Opacity opacity Material diffuse colors are blended with the ambient color.
Transparent transparent Material diffuse colors are not modulated by the ambient color.

Possible values for all the other passes:

GUI name XML name Description
Skip none Material is not rendered during the pass.
Default default Material is rendered during the pass.

The options can be either enabled or disabled by ticking the respective boxes.

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

The states available for billboards are listed below.

Passes

Passes specify during which rendering pass the material should be rendered. They are modified in the Passes field of the States tab.

GUI name XML name Description
Deferred deferred Deferred rendering pass. Specifies if the material should be rendered during the deferred pass. For the transparent surfaces see also a Post deferred option.
Auxiliary auxiliary Auxiliary rendering pass. Specifies if the material should be rendered into the auxiliary buffer to create a custom post-process.
Ambient ambient Ambient rendering pass. Specifies, how the material should be rendered during the Ambient light pass for the opaque objects. The actual opacity or transparency of the material depends solely on the set blending options.
Light spot light_spot Spot lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Spot light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.
Light prob light_prob Probe lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Probe light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.
Light omni light_omni Omni-directional lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Omni light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.
Light proj light_proj Projected lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the Projected light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.
Light world light_world World lights rendering pass. Specifies, if the material should be rendered illuminated by the World light sources during the light and shadows rendering passes.

Options

The following options are set in the Options field of the States tab.

GUI name XML name Description
Lock axis X axis_x Prevents the billboards from changing its orientation along the X axis.
Lock axis X is disabled Lock axis X is enabled
Disabled Lock axis X
Enabled Lock axis X
Lock axis Z axis_z Prevents the billboards from changing its orientation along the Z axis. It can be useful for tree or house billboards.
Notice
When both X and Z axis are locked, the billboard is forced to be facing in one direction only.
Lock axis X is disabled Lock axis X and Lock axis Z are enabled
Enabled Lock axis Z
Enabled Lock axis X and Lock axis Z
Screen aligned screen Indicates that a billboard should be always strictly parallel to the screen plane and not rotating (instead of being axis-aligned).
Screen aligned is disabled Screen aligned is enabled
Disabled Screen aligned
Enabled Screen aligned
Angular size angular With this option set, billboards are always of the same size regardless of the camera position.
Angular size is disabled Angular size is enabled
Disabled Angular size
Enabled Angular size
Ambient emission emission Specifies if a light emission (glow) should be simulated for the material and an additional emission texture will be provided for the material.
Notice
You can find an example of emission effect usage in the billboard_base material article.
Shadow shafts volumetric Specifies if volumetric shadows from world lights will be rendered from surfaces with the applied material.

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: 03.07.2017
Build: ()