General tab

Duration, Frame Rate, File

On this page, you’ll find settings much like the ones on the Output page of the render settings. Here you can set the duration, frame rate and choose the filename and save location for the SWF file that will be created. If you want to use the same settings as defined in the render settings, click the Render Setting button. These settings will then be loaded into the FlashEx dialog.

In addition to creating an SWF file, you can also generate a HTML page which includes the SWF file. You can cut-and-paste the HTML code from this page directly into your own HTML pages or edit the code.

Optimize For

The Width and Height input boxes enable you to specify the optimum display size. When an SWF file is opened directly, most Internet browsers will display it in full screen mode but if you have enabled the Generate HTML option it will be displayed using this optimum size if possible. This size can be changed afterwards using any HTML editor. Optimize For settings are especially important for the display of lines and the Gouraud and Comic modes. (See also Mode, below.)

Mode

This dropdown list enables you to change the render mode. The Wireframe, Hiddenline, Outline and Solid modes are rendered using vector lines. SWF files using these modes are fully scalable without loss of quality. The other modes are based on vectorized raster images and therefore loss of quality is possible when scaling them.

Wireframe

Objects are displayed as wireframe models. If backfaces should be drawn as well, set Polygons to All.

Hiddenline

This mode is the same as Wireframe, except that hidden parts of the geometry will not be drawn.

Outline

Only the outlines are drawn.

Solid

This mode is similar to Outline except that each object is filled with the color of its material (Color page). All other material channels are ignored. Procedural materials, plugin materials and textures are all ignored.

Gouraud Limited

This mode generates shaded surfaces based on vectorized raster images. The accuracy is limited to pixels and therefore not as clean as the vectorbased modes such as Wireframe or Solid. Just like a normal 2D picture, when you scale the SWF document there will be a loss of quality. To improve the quality of Gouraud output, increase the Width and Height values.

Comic Flat Limited, Comic Round Limited

These two modes draw the objects cartoon-style. The Flat mode is the more suitable of the two for angular objects.

Comic Flat.

Comic Round.

Since the Comic modes generate shaded surfaces based on vectorized raster images, the accuracy is limited to pixels and therefore not as clean as the vectorbased modes such as Wireframe or Solid. Just like a normal 2D picture, when you scale the SWF document there will be a loss of quality. To improve the quality of Gouraud output, increase the Width and Height values.

Polygons

This setting determines whether all polygons are drawn (All) or only those facing the camera (Only Frontfaces).

Each polygon has a surface normal and two faces: a front face and a back face. The direction of the surface normal defines which side is the front face and which is the back face. In general, all objects should be modeled with the surface normals pointing outwards. In this case, polygons whose surface normals point towards the camera are also at the front of the objects and those that are pointing away are at the back.

If you want to see the back faces in Wireframe mode, set Polygons to All. If instead you set Polygons to Only Frontfaces, only the front faces will be drawn.

For all rendering modes apart from Wireframe, you should generally set Polygons to Only Frontfaces. This is because in most cases the front faces will cover the back faces and so you won’t see the back faces anyway.

Calculating back faces in these cases is a waste of render time.