The Properties palette

Globals

See Basic document preferences or Advanced document preferences for parameter descriptions

High Precision

Enables highly accurate renderings. Deselect the check box to quickly render large files; the check box must be deselected each time you open a .v3s file. Some artifacts may appear.

Use this setting primarily for testing.

Name

Displays the lighting device's channel number or the name of the laser, projector, object, or layer

Objects, fixtures, and layers

Unit Number

Displays the fixture's unit number

Fixtures

Display Name

Displays the fixture's make and model; this field cannot be edited

Fixtures

Manufacturer

Displays the fixture manufacturer; this field cannot be edited

Fixtures

Type

Displays the fixture type; this field cannot be edited

Fixtures

Visible

Indicates that the fixture is visible in the scene; deselect to make the fixture invisible

Fixures and layers

Universe

Displays the universe assigned to the lighting device or projector

Lighting devices, projectors

Channel

Displays the DMX address assigned to the lighting device or projector

Lighting devices, projectors

DMX Footprint

Displays the number of control channels used by the lighting device or projector; this field cannot be edited

Lighting devices, projectors

Cast Shadows

Controls the display of shadows for specific objects and layers, so you can override the global shadow preference when needed.

Set the global shadow behavior from the Render shadows setting on the Basic: Graphics tab or Advanced: Graphics tab.

Use Parent Setting: Uses the same Cast shadows setting that is specified for the closest "parent" layer in the Scene Graph palette. This option is selected for all objects and layers by default, so the ROOT layer setting (controlled by the Render shadows preference) is applied globally.

Cast Shadows: Toggles shadows on, even when you deselect the Render shadows preference.

Do Not Cast Shadows: Toggles shadows off, even when you select the Render shadows preference.

Objects and layers

Position

Objects, fixtures, and layers

Position X

Sets the item's position on the X axis in inches. Positive values move right; negative values move left.

Objects, fixtures, and layers

Position Y

Sets the item's position on the Y axis in inches. Positive values move up; negative values move down.

Objects, fixtures, and layers

Position Z

Sets the item's position on the Z axis in inches. Positive values move away from the camera; negative values move toward it.

Objects, fixtures, and layers

Rotation

Objects, fixtures, and layers

Rotation X/Y/Z

Sets the item's rotation on the X/Y/Z axis in inches. Positive values rotate clockwise; negative values rotate counter-clockwise.

Objects, fixtures, and layers

Scale

Objects and layers

Scale X/Y/Z

Sets the scale of the object in its local X-/Y-/Z-axis coordinate direction

Objects and layers

DMX XForm

Moves, rotates, and scales selected items in the scene, or all items in the selected layer. See DMX transforms for more information.

Lighting devices cannot be scaled by DMX transform.

Objects, fixtures, and layers

Material

Objects

Color

Displays the RGB color assigned to the object

Objects

Texture

Displays the image file, video file, or video input assigned to the object. Click the button next to the texture field to select a file. Click X to remove the file.

For more information on adding video to textures, see Assigning textures.

Objects

Use Alpha Channel

Uses the alpha channel from the Texture as the rendering mask

Objects

Texture Scale

Sets the texture size on an object. For example, a scale value of 2 doubles the size of the texture.

Objects

Texture Offset H/V

Shifts the start location of the texture horizontally or vertically

Objects

Brightness

Controls the brightness of the texture by adjusting the comparative luminance of each pixel in the texture image; this is useful for video screens

Objects

Specular Texture

Uses a color image to control the color and intensity of the object's reflectivity, depending on the amount of surface detail and the Specular Power. Click the button next to the texture field to select a texture image file. Click X to remove the file.

Objects

Specular Power

Controls the sharpness of the object's highlights and environment reflections. Lower values create blurry reflections (good for carpet), while higher values create sharper reflections (good for metal).

Objects

Normal Texture

Uses a color image to simulate the lighting of small surface irregularities. RGB colors on the object surface correspond to XYZ values, to indicate the direction that light reflects off the object. Click the button next to the texture field to select a texture image file. Click X to remove the file.

Vision uses tangent space normal maps.

Objects

Bump Texture

Uses a grayscale image to simulate surface contours, such as brick work, for an embossed appearance. Bump textures can provide a greater sense of depth than normal textures, but performance may decrease. Click the button next to the texture field to select a texture image file. Click X to remove the file.

Objects

Alpha Texture

Uses an image mask to simulate surface transparency or opacity. White areas appear opaque and black areas appear transparent. Click the button next to the texture field to select a texture image file. Click X to remove the file.

Objects

Force Emissive Mesh

Makes a texture image glow even when the ambient lighting is low. This is a good setting for video screens and LED tape.

Objects

Emissive

Objects

Lighting Device Type

Converts geometry into a DMX-controlled emissive lighting device, such as a glowing sphere. The brightness of RGB colors is controlled by separate channels.

Objects

Lighting Device Candela

Sets the maximum output of the emissive lighting device, controlling how brightly it glows

Objects

Lighting Device Universe

Displays the universe assigned to the emissive lighting device

Objects

Lighting Device Channel

Displays the channel assigned to the emissive lighting device

Objects

Lighting

Lighting devices, projectors

Candela

Sets the maximum output of the lamp. Increase the value to make both the beam and the surface lights brighter.

Perceived brightness also depends on the beam and field angles of the lighting device, the dimmer, and other components of the light train.

Lighting devices, projectors

Color Temperature

Sets the temperature of emitted light. At 6000K, the light appears white. Larger values make the light appear cooler (blue), and smaller values make the light appear warmer (amber).

Lighting devices, projectors

Force Emissive

Converts the lighting device to an emissive; the lens glows, but the lighting device does not emit beams, create surface lights, or cast shadows. This is a good setting for blinders, LED lighting devices, and performance-intensive multi-part lighting devices. (Although you can use this parameter for projectors, this would be unusual.)

Emissive lighting devices can significantly improve performance.

Lighting devices, projectors

Beam Multiplier

Multiplies the brightness of the beam without affecting surface lights.

This is not a real-world fix; adjust the beam by other parameters if possible.

Lighting devices, projectors

Gobo Wheels

Select a gobo image for the lighting device to project. Click the button next to the slot number to select the image file for the slot. Click X to remove the file.

Lighting devices

Color Wheels

Select a color for each slot in the lighting device's color wheel. Click the button next to the color definition. The Color Picker dialog box opens. Color libraries from common manufacturers are listed in the Number column. Expand the list by clicking the disclosure arrows. Select a standard color from a manufacturer, or choose a color from the color picker. The Preview displays the selected color. The Hue, Saturation, and Luminance values, as well as the Red, Green, and Blue values, display.

Lighting devices

MVR

Objects, fixtures, and layers

(MVR only)

UUID

Displays the item's unique ID for tracking by MVR; see Merging files

Objects, fixtures, and layers

(MVR only)

Invert Pan

Inverts the lighting device's pan

Lighting devices

Invert Tilt

Inverts the lighting device's tilt

Lighting devices