Common

Language

Choose a language for CINEMA 4D’s interface from the installed language sets. After quitting and re-launching CINEMA 4D, all messages, menus and dialogs will change to the new language.

Scheme

Choose one of the installed schemes from this drop-down list.

Adapt Thread Priority

If you enable this option, the system assigns a higher priority, i.e. more computing time, to CINEMA 4D than to other applications that are also running. If enabled, these other applications will run more slowly than usual. If you want to work in other applications while rendering in CINEMA 4D, you may find it useful to disable this option.

Use QuickTime

If you enable this option, CINEMA 4D uses QuickTime if it is installed on your system. Additional file formats will then be available

If the option is disabled, the Browser will work slightly more quickly because it then has fewer file formats to check.

Allow Bugreports

Needless to say, this is one CINEMA 4D function that you will never need...

...in the rare event that CINEMA 4D should crash, though, a built-in automatism will attempt to recover the file. In addition, numerous files will be saved (setting active) that can, if desired, be sent to MAXON via email. Sending such information to MAXON will also help our team of programmers quickly remedy the issue and simultaneously improve the application. Any files sent will be kept confidential and will not be forwarded to any 3rd party.

So, what happens if CINEMA 4D crashes?

The following:

1. CINEMA 4D will create a directory named _bugreport in the directory where the CINEMA 4D .exe is located. A bugreport named _BugReport.txt will be generated and saved to the _bugreport directory. The bugreport will be created as a text file and can be opened using any text editor. It will contain all pertinent information our team of programmers needs to solve the issue, what ever it may be (plugins or applications that caused the crash, operating system, processors, etc.).
   
   
2. CINEMA 4D will attempt to recover the scene file (which can take a few minutes) and will save the file to the _bugreports directory with a _recovery_ annotation. It cannot be guaranteed that the file will be recovered. Several prefs files will also be saved (preferences) as well as the file in which CINEMA 4D saves its layout (everything from the CINEMA 4D prefs directory).
   So far, NO files or information have been sent anywhere.
   Depending on whether or not “Allow Bugreports” is activated, the following will now occur:
   
   
   • Not Active: Nothing further will happen. The files created and saved to your hard drive will not be sent anywhere.
     
   • Active: A dialog window will open which will ask you if you would like to send the bugreport and/or scene files to MAXON. You will have the following options:
     Yes: The files in points 1. and 2. above will be placed into a .zip file (also in the _bugreports directory). An email will automatically be opened using your system’s default email application, with the .zip file attached and the Subject line empty.
     No: The files in points 1. and 2. above will be placed into a .zip file not including your scene file (also in the _bugreports directory). An email will automatically be opened using your system’s default email application, with the .zip file attached and the Subject line empty.
     Cancel: Nothing will be sent.
     

Crash-related issues can only be resolved if our team of programmers knows exactly what caused a given problem. Any files sent to MAXON are therefore of enormous importance in solving individual crash-related issues.

Graphics Tablet

If you experience problems when using a graphics tablet with CINEMA 4D, enable the Graphics Tablet option.

Use Hi-Res Coordinates

If you still experience problems and you’re using the latest driver for your tablet, disable Use Hi-Res Coordinates to use the tablet in mouse mode. Although you’ll lose some of the tablet’s resolution, you should barely notice the difference.

Save Layout At Program End

If this option is enabled, the current layout will be saved when you quit CINEMA 4D. When you next start the program, the layout will be in the same state that you left it in.

This may lead to unwelcome effects. For example, perhaps your usual layout is biased towards modeling (e.g. a large perspective view). You decide to create a layout specifically for texturing (e.g. a large Material manager). You save the texturing layout under its own name and quit the program. If the Save Layout At Program End option is enabled, the texturing layout will overwrite your usual layout.

Realtime Spinner

Disable this option to prevent realtime refresh in the viewport while you are changing parameter values in the Attribute manager. In other words, with this option disabled, the viewport will only be refreshed once you’ve released the slider or mouse button.

This can help to prevent viewport slow-down when working with complex scenes.

Realtime Manager Update (During Animation)

If this option is enabled, animated parameters are displayed in the Attribute manager in realtime when you play the animation.

Recalculate Scene On Rewind

This option affects Dynamics and Thinking Particles scenes only (optional CINEMA 4D modules). If you drag the time slider left while the option is enabled, the scene is recalculated from frame 0 to the current frame to ensure a correct result.

Reverse Orbit

This option inverts the direction the camera rotates in when you drag the mouse (applies to the editor camera and the Camera tool). This is mostly of interest if you have used 3ds max or Maya.

Render Threads

Use this drop-down list to set the number of render threads (the number of render lines in the viewport or Picture Viewer). On single-processor systems, there is little point in using several threads because this may reduce render performance and the threads may be assigned different portions of render time (unequal distribution in the viewport).

Choose from Optimal (CINEMA 4D sets the number of threads automatically), 1 (switches off multithreading on multi-processor systems), 2, 4 or 8.

Attribute Manager Limit

Defines the maximum number of elements such as objects or keys that can be edited in the Attribute manager. For example, if the value is set to 10 and 477 objects are selected, only the first ten elements will be taken into account. The value of 10 used in this example has little practical use; use a much higher value.

Sub-Polygon Displacement Memory (MB)

When rendering sub-poly displacement, CINEMA 4D must work with a huge number of polygons — up to several hundred million. The cache that would be required to calculate the displacement samples would be larger than the hardware could cope with! Therefore, only part of the samples are stored in memory at any one time. The amount of RAM that is used to store these samples is defined by the Sub-Polygon Displacement Memory value.

Strike a balance between a low value and a high value. A low value makes for long render times while a high value can also slow down rendering if it is set so high that virtual memory must be used. In most cases the default value is sufficient. In cases where you are using extremely high SPD subdivisions, try to speed up the rendering by optimizing the value.

Monitor Gamma

This is where you set your monitor gamma. For a PC, this setting would normally be 2.2 for a Mac 1.8. All 32-Bit images that are loaded into the Picture Viewer or BodyPaint 3D’s New Texture Viewer will be rendered using this gamma value.

You can ignore this option if you are not working with 32-Bit images.

The Difficulty With Gamma

If you don’t work with 32-Bit images you can disregard the following.

So, why should I suddenly worry about gamma values? This wasn’t the case with earlier versions of CINEMA 4D (prior to 9.5)...

Well, that’s not really 100% true – earlier versions also saved images with gamma values, only the values were automatically set to 2.2 for PCs and 1.8 for Macs.

What on earth is gamma anyway? The gamma value defines the degree to which the brightness settings will be displayed. A bright pixel can be rendered darker, for example, depending on the gamma value. Ever since CINEMA 4D was given the ability to work with 32-Bit images, which by definition must have a gamma value of 1, discrepancies can occur. As soon as 32-Bit is used, CINEMA 4D will differentiate precisely between all gamma values that have been defined.

Basically, the following applies: When 32-Bit images are loaded (no matter if in the Picture Viewer, BodyPaint 3D’s New Texture Viewer or as a texture in the material channel), they will be displayed / processed with a gamma value of 2.2 for PCs and 1.8 for Macs (as long as one of CINEMA 4D’s many gamma settings has not been set to a different value – see below).

You can find the various editable gamma values here (applies to 32-Bit only):

• Preferences (Common tab): Monitor Gamma.
  Standard values are 2.2 for PCs and 1.8 for Mac. This value is also used for bitmap shaders using HDR gamma. These values, though, can be changed (see below). When using other hardware for output, make any changes to gamma values in that hardware’s respective settings.
• In an active bitmap shader, if you have loaded a texture bitmap into a material channel (click on the material channel’s preview image or on the file path): HDR Gamma.
  This only applies to the effect it has in the corresponding material channel. Since this value is saved within the scene file itself, both PC and Mac users will get the same render results.
• In the Render Settings... (Options tab): Render Gamma.
  This setting defines for which output device the image should be rendered, i.e. if you want to render for a monitor or printer that uses a gamma of 1.1, this is where this will be defined. Nevertheless, the image will be saved with a gamma of 1.0. Don’t worry, the image will still look correct on your output device.
• In the Picture Viewer (View / 32-bit Preview Options...).
  This gamma value applies only to the preview in the Picture Viewer and the New Texture View in BodyPaint 3D, and has no influence on images that are output.
  
  

Did you understand any of what was just described? If not, there’s good news: you will practically never have to change the preset gamma values. Only change them if you know exactly what you’re doing!

Macintosh (Mac OS only)

Exchange CTRL <–> COMMAND-key

CINEMA 4D uses the Ctrl (Control) key as the default modifier key. The Command key is used for simulating the right mouse button (Command-click). If you want it to work the other way around, enable this option.

Deny Power Cycle

Disables the power cycle on the Macintosh.