Decal generator properties

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Property	Description
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).

Dynamic LOD

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

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.