Light

The properties on the Light Object control how the scene is lit.

To open lighting properties, in the Tree Window toolbar, select Light > Edit light properties.

Quickly set the other “Environment” properties to one of a variety of lighting situations: bright sun, overcast, moonlight, etc.

The properties in this group control the directional light hitting the tree (which can be considered the sun).

The color of the directional light.

How much directional light exists in the scene.

The properties in this group control both the ambient light hitting the tree and the colors shown in the background of the Tree Window.

The style of ambient light to use - 3 color or HDRI

The color used at the apex of the sky in 3 color lighting.

The color used for the horizon of the sky in 3 color lighting.

The color of the ground plane in 3 color lighting.

The filename of the spherically mapped texture to use for the environment. This can be a true high dynamic range image in the HDR format, or it can be EXR or even any of the other image formats the Modeler supports.

How much ambient light exists in the scene.

When used on the tree, how much to interpolate from the actual ambient value to the directional color. This lets you decide to have a very colorful background without too much of that color affecting the tree lighting itself.

When using an HDRI, a scalar applied to the specular from the environment.

When using an HDRI, a scalar applied to the subsurface from the environment.

These properties control general rendering of this tree.

This button lets you quickly set the actual background to the same settings used for the ambient environment. It is the same as setting them on the Tree Window.

The type of tonemapping to convert the high range lit image to one viewable on the screen.

By default this is enabled. It will cause the normals to be flipped on the back side of two-sided geometry. This, plus normals close to face normals, will provide the most accurate specular response. However, this doesn't always make the best looking leaves from a distance, especially on game trees. If you wish to really bend leaf normals, then disable this option as well.

These properties allow you to tweak the result when you render Ambient Occlusion on the tree.

The new AO value follows the formula:
AOnew = ((AO + Brightness - 0.5) x Contrast + 0.5) x (Max - Min) + Min

Makes the AO brighter/darker.

Increases the difference between light and dark AO values.

Sets the darkest value of AO.

Sets the brightest value of AO.

The quality of the rendered AO. This will affect the amount of time it takes to compute it.

These properties control an additional AO provided from the ground near the bottom of the tree.

The AO value to use at the bottom of the tree.

How far to spread this AO effect up the tree.

How much to blend the AO values as they near the end of the effect.

Renders new ambient occlusion.

Clears ambient occlusion to white.

Sets the quality of shadows used. Higher quality equals sharper shadows, but also slower rendering in the Tree Window.

Brighten/darken the shadow cast onto the ground, if needed. You most likely won't need to change this from the default.

Edit lighting for multiple generators at once. To opt in a generator for global lighting, set its Lighting:Style to Global. Leaf mesh, Batched leaf, and Frond generators accept global lighting.

Hint: To change the Lighting:Style for multiple generators at once, hold Ctrl and select the generators in the Generation Editor. With multiple generators selected, edit the Lighting properties in the Property Bar.

Adjust the vertex normals relative to the model’s anatomical structure. Edit multiple properties to get the most natural lighting effect. If any Puffs values reach 1.0, they override the original normals. Adjustments made with these properties adapt to procedural or manual changes to the model.

Adjust the vertex normals within a very small scale. Results in the most localized changes on the model.

Adjust the vertex normals within a small scale.

Adjust the vertex normals within a medium scale.

Adjust the vertex normals within a large scale.

Adjust the vertex normals on a model-wide scale. Results in uniform changes to the model.

Angle the vertex normals up or down along the z-axis. Use this property for uniform lighting on grass models.

Adjust the vertex normals relative to a mesh asset geometry force. This property is only available if you enable Normals projection in the geometry force properties.

Display the vertex normals for all generators with their Lighting:Style set to Global.

Choose when to display the vertex normals.

Choose to view all vertex normals or a reduced number.

Increase the length of the vertex normals.