Decal generator properties

The Decal generator icon.

The Decal generator wraps a material and a flat mesh onto a parent to create surface details such as knots, lumps, or cavities.

Generation

Refer to Generation Properties.

Random Seeds

Refer to Random seeds properties.

Mesh

Change the size and LOD settings for the mesh.

Property Description
Use actual size When enabled, the mesh will start the same size as it was in its original file. Otherwise, the size will be unitized (i.e., fit in a unit box).

Scale

Increase or decrease the size of the mesh.

Property Description
Absolute Increase or decrease the size of the mesh by a fixed amount. This amount doesn’t adjust relative to the size of the parent.
+ % of parent Increase or decrease the size of the mesh relative to the size of the parent. This value is multiplied by the size of the parent node and added to the size of the mesh. Use this value when combining meshes procedurally to ensure that meshes further down the hierarchy gradually decrease in size.
Mesh LOD offset When set to a value other than 0, the mesh currently assigned will go up or down in mesh resolution (High, Medium, or Low detail on the mesh asset). Use this property (especially in conjunction with its parent curve) to adjust mesh resolution throughout the model. To use this property, meshes must be assigned in at least two of the three mesh asset LOD slots.
Resolution See Resolution.

Decal

Change the position and displacement of the node.

Property Description
Rotation Rotate the node from the mesh’s pivot point.
Offset Set how far off the parent the node sits. To avoid depth conflicts (or z-fighting), set the value above 0.

Height

Displace or extrude parts of the node based on its heightmap. This property only works if there’s an active heightmap on the material.

Property Description
Amount Set the amount of displacement based on the heightmap on the material.
Zero Adjust what the Modeler considers a zero point on the heightmap. Use this property to displace nodes with grayscale heightmaps without changing the brightness or opacity of the map.

Material

Select a material and mesh combination. Meshes must be assigned to the material on the Material Bar. Materials are chosen based on their weights and season settings.

Property Description
Material Choose a material from the Materials Bar. If None is selected, the default geometry is generated.
Mesh Choose which assigned mesh is used. Select a specific mesh or let the system select one for you.
  • Any: Any mesh assigned to the chosen material.
  • Primary: The first mesh listed on the material.
  • Not the primary: Any mesh but the first one listed on the material.
Weight Set the probability that a node receives this material (this weight ÷ sum of all weights).

Season

The properties in this group control how decals transition in the seasons system, which affects their presence, shape and material changes. Decal transitions are determined by looking up season curves based on the position of the season slider.

Property Description
Start offset Determines when the decal starts to transition: 0.0 makes the transition start immediately, higher values delay the start, and negative values make it start sooner.
Time scale Controls how long it takes for a decal to complete its transition. Higher values accelerate the transition. The default value of 1.0 means one year.
Drop time Controls how long the decal remains attached. A decal can drop no matter what material is assigned.
Tip

Use variance on these properties to slightly randomize the time and effects of the transition on neighboring decals.

Dynamic LOD

The properties in this group control how the mesh reacts to level of detail computations.

Property Description
Weight Increase or decrease the likelihood that meshes in this generator will survive the LOD process (vs. whatever it's grouped with in other generators). Use the parent curve to target specific areas of the model.
Mesh index This curve controls which mesh LOD (if present) is used for each LOD state. The left side of the curve corresponds to the highest LOD. The right side corresponds to the lowest LOD.

Post

The properties in this group influence how decals in this generator participate in post-compute processing, such as tree element collisions and shade pruning.

Collision

Define how decals in this generator participate in tree element collision computations.

Property Description
Style Set how the decals behave during collision computations.
  • Everything: Decals in this generator collide with each other and all other elements of the collision system.
  • Ignore siblings: Decals in this generator ignore siblings but collide with everything else.
  • Knock out others only: Decals in this generator can't be removed, but they can eliminate elements in other generators.
  • Nothing: These decals don't participate in collision computations.
Weight When tree elements collide, the one with the higher weight wins. Use this property to set the weight.
Pivot threshold Sets how far away from pivot (as a percentage of size) a collision has to happen in order to count. Use this property to eliminate unwanted removals of decals anchored near each other.
Sphere threshold When using spherical collision tests, this value scales the size of the spheres used during the test. Spheres are initially sized based on decal size.

Shade Pruning

Define how decals in this generator behave when you enable Shade Pruning.

Property Description
Style Select the layer of the tree to start pruning from.
  • None: No decals in this generator participate in shade pruning computations.
  • Interior: The pruning starts from the most shaded decals at the interior of the tree.
  • Exterior: The pruning starts from the least shaded decals at the exterior of the tree.
Threshold Set the relative shade level up to which the Modeler removes decals during pruning.