Options

Enabling the options allows for better quality, higher detailed rendering, but takes longer

Anti-Aliasing

Select for smoother edges on objects and textures; deselect for faster rendering with rougher edges

Shadows

Adds shadows for a higher degree of realism

Textures

Renders the textures assigned to objects; deselect for faster rendering

Blurriness

Select to render textures with blurred reflectivity and/or blurred transparency (this can add significant rendering time)

Displacement Mapping

Renders with displacement mapping when a texture’s bump shader setting has a displacement height set; select the displacement mapping quality below. Deselect for faster rendering.

Caustics

Select to render caustics from light objects that have Caustic Photons set to a value other than None from the Object Info palette (see Light Source Properties)

Grass

When a grass color shader is used for a texture, renders the blades of grass. When this option is deselected, the first shader color (or image) is used, but blades of grass are not rendered, saving rendering time for large surfaces or dense grass.

Colors

When selected, renders colors, and textures with colors; deselect to render colors as white

Camera Effects

When selected, the Renderworks camera effects settings for the active camera are used in the rendering (see Placing a Camera View). When deselected, only the active camera’s position and orientation settings are used in the rendering.

Renderworks camera effects are camera-dependent; activate the camera to see the effects in the rendering

Fullscreen Preview

Select to render full-screen previews, to help you make faster decisions when adjusting the view, lighting, and/or render settings. To reduce render time, deselect this option when you are not making adjustments.

Lighting Options

Click Lighting Options to quickly access the design layer’s or viewport’s lighting options dialog box

Quality

For each parameter, select the quality level. Higher quality results in better resolution of rendered images, with better texture detail and softer shadows, but takes more time.

Quality Levels

Conveniently sets the quality level of all the options at one time. Custom indicates that some options have different quality levels set.

Curved Geometry

Select the quality level for faceting of curved geometry (such as NURBS surfaces)

Anti-Aliasing

Select the quality level for anti-aliasing (smoothing) of edges on objects and textures

Indirect Lighting

Select the quality level for indirect lighting effects

Soft Shadows

Sets the quality level of shadows for light objects that have Soft Shadows enabled. For area and line lights, specifies the sampling quality of the light.

Blurriness

Select the quality level of textures with blurry reflectivity and/or transparency

Environment Lighting

Select the sampling quality level for environment background lighting. This option has no effect when indirect lighting is enabled for the lighting options.

Displacement Mapping

When enabled in the Options and set for a bump shader, select the quality of the displacement mapping. Higher quality is more realistic for fine displacement bumps, but will require longer rendering times.

Rendering can be significantly slower with displacement mapping.

Max Reflections

Enter the number of levels of reflection among shiny surfaces; a higher value slows rendering, but can yield a more realistic image for scenes with many inter-reflecting objects