| Texture | Grid | Advanced | Render Tree Usage
Shader Type: Texture
Output: Color (RGB) value
Makes a rigid grid-like pattern. It consists of orthogonal overlapping lines of a specified width on an underlying area.
Name |
The shader’s name. Enter any name you like, or leave the default. |
Texture Space |
Defines the texture space the texture will be applied to. The projection can be defined per object or to all objects in the selection. Object Selection: Defines whether the texture will be applied to a specific object or all of a scene’s objects. Property Selection: Lets you choose a Texture Support. If no texture support has been defined, you can create one by clicking New. If a texture projection is already defined, you can edit it by clicking Edit. Edit: Opens the Texture Support property page for the defined texture projection. New: Defines the new texture projection to be created. You can choose from the following: • UV: Projects the texture along the U and V. • Planar XY: Projects the texture on X and Y coordinates only. • Planar XZ: Projects the texture on X and Z coordinates only. • Planar YZ: Projects the texture on Y and Z coordinates only. • Cylindrical: Projects the texture as though it is a cylinder wrapped around an object. • Spherical: Surrounds the object with a spherical mapping across the whole surface with some distortion. • Spatial: The texture is centered on the scene’s origin. • Cubic: Applies the texture onto the object by first assigning the object’s polygons to faces of a cube, and then projecting the texture onto each face by default. The layout of a cubic projection can be completely customized using the options in the Texture Support property editor. • Camera Projection: The texture is mapped relative to the camera’s center. In this coordinate system, the camera is the center of the “world,” with an up vector, looking toward the negative Z axis. The result resembles an image projected from a camera. The texture will move with the camera and will be affected by any scaling, rotation, and translation. • Unique Uvs (Polymesh): Applies a texture to polygon objects by assigning each polygon’s UV coordinates to its own distinct piece of the texture so that no two polygons’ coordinates overlap each other. • Advanced: Opens the Create Texture Support property page from which you can explicitly define a texture projection. |
Bump Mapping
Enable |
Switches bump mapping on or off. |
Bump Map Factor |
Defines how “bumpy” the bump map will be. A negative value inverts the bump inward; a positive bump map factor bumps outward. |
Use Alpha |
Uses the texture’s alpha channel to achieve a bump map. |
Fill Color |
Defines the color of the area between the lines. |
Line Color |
Defines the color of the lines that make up the grid. |
Alpha
Copy Alpha to RGB |
Multiplies the RGB channels with the alpha channel by the factor defined in the Alpha Strength parameter. |
Alpha Strength |
Determines the factor by which the Alpha is multiplied with the RGB channels. |
Contrast |
Controls the contrast between the color of the lines and the color of the intervening area. At 0, the colors are averaged; for negative values, the colors are swapped. |
Diffusion |
Defines how much the grid diffuses into the intervening area. |
Width
U, V |
Defines the width of the horizontal and vertical lines of the grid. |
Bump Mapping
Step |
Controls the U, V, and Z steps of a bump map. Use this parameter to “smooth” bumps or make them more jagged. |
Alternate
U, V, Z |
Specifies whether every other copy of the repetition should be reversed so that the successive copies of the texture are alternated. |
Repeats
Texture Repeats |
Contains the repetition factor in X,Y, and Z. A value of 2, for example, shrinks the texture so that it fits twice in a [0..1] interval. |
UV Remap
Minimum, Maximum |
Determines the remapping of the texture image. For a 2D image, only X and Y are used. |
Color parameters can be connected to other textures or image processing shaders. For example, you can connect a different texture to the Line Color and Fill Color parameters to create a grid-like blend of image clips.
A texture’s scalar parameters can be altered to create interesting effects by applying Texture Generator shaders to them or another Scalar output shader. For example, try applying the Incidence shader to the U and V Width parameters. Orbit the camera to see a difference in the render region.
A texture shader has limitless capabilities in a render tree. It can texture an object, be used as a camera or light projection, define bump or displacement maps, or be blended with any number of other textures to create any effect.
SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.6.01