Light object reference

The properties on the Light Object control how the scene is lit.

To open lighting properties, in the Tree Window toolbar, select Light > Edit light properties.

Environment

Preset

Quickly set the other "Environment" properties to one of a variety of lighting situations: bright sun, overcast, moonlight, etc.

Directional

The properties in this group control the directional light hitting the tree (which can be considered the sun).

Color

The color of the directional light.

Intensity

How much directional light exists in the scene.

Ambient

The properties in this group control both the ambient light hitting the tree and the colors shown in the background of the Tree Window.

Type

The style of ambient light to use - 3 color or HDRI

Sky

The color used at the apex of the sky in 3 color lighting.

Horizon

The color used for the horizon of the sky in 3 color lighting.

Ground

The color of the ground plane in 3 color lighting.

HDRI

The filename of the spherically mapped texture to use for the environment. This can be a true high dynamic range image in the HDR format, or it can be EXR or even any of the other image formats the Modeler supports.

Intensity

How much ambient light exists in the scene.

Directional tint

When used on the tree, how much to interpolate from the actual ambient value to the directional color. This lets you decide to have a very colorful background without too much of that color affecting the tree lighting itself.

Specular scale

When using an HDRI, a scalar applied to the specular from the environment.

Subsurface scale

When using an HDRI, a scalar applied to the subsurface from the environment.

Rendering

These properties control general rendering of this tree.

Window background

This button lets you quickly set the actual background to the same settings used for the ambient environment. It is the same as setting them on the Tree Window.

Tonemapper

The type of tonemapping to convert the high range lit image to one viewable on the screen.

Flip backside normals

By default this is enabled. It will cause the normals to be flipped on the back side of two-sided geometry. This, plus normals close to face normals, will provide the most accurate specular response. However, this doesn't always make the best looking leaves from a distance, especially on game trees. If you wish to really bend leaf normals, then disable this option as well.

Ambient Occlusion

These properties allow you to tweak the result when you render Ambient Occlusion (AO) on the tree.

The new AO value follows the formula:

AOnew = ((AO + Brightness - 0.5) x Contrast + 0.5) x (Max - Min) + Min

Brightness

Makes the AO brighter/darker.

Contrast

Increases the difference between light and dark AO values.

Min

Sets the darkest value of AO.

Max

Sets the brightest value of AO.

Quality

The quality of the rendered AO. This will affect the amount of time it takes to compute it.

Ground Effect

These properties control an additional AO provided from the ground near the bottom of the tree.

Value

The AO value to use at the bottom of the tree.

Distance

How far to spread this AO effect up the tree.

Blur

How much to blend the AO values as they near the end of the effect.

Computation

Render

Renders new ambient occlusion.

Clear

Clears ambient occlusion to white.

Shadows

Quality

Sets the quality of shadows used. Higher quality equals sharper shadows, but also slower rendering in the Tree Window.

Ground weight

Brighten/darken the shadow cast onto the ground, if needed. You most likely won't need to change this from the default.

Global

Edit lighting for multiple generators at once. To opt in a generator for global lighting, set its Lighting:Style to Global. Leaf mesh, Batched leaf, and Frond generators accept global lighting.

Hint: To change the Lighting:Style for multiple generators at once, hold Ctrl and select the generators in the Generation Editor. With multiple generators selected, edit the Lighting properties in the Property Bar.

Puffs

Adjust the vertex normals relative to the model’s anatomical structure. Edit multiple properties to get the most natural lighting effect. If any Puffs values reach 1.0, they override the original normals. Adjustments made with these properties adapt to procedural or manual changes to the model.

Tiny

Adjust the vertex normals within a very small scale. Results in the most localized changes on the model.

Small

Adjust the vertex normals within a small scale.

Medium

Adjust the vertex normals within a medium scale.

Large

Adjust the vertex normals within a large scale.

Huge

Adjust the vertex normals on a model-wide scale. Results in uniform changes to the model.

World

Up

Angle the vertex normals up or down along the z-axis. Use this property for uniform lighting on grass models.

Projectors

Adjust the vertex normals relative to a mesh asset geometry force. This property is only available if you enable Normals projection in the geometry force properties.

Visualization

Display the vertex normals for all generators with their Lighting:Style set to Global.

Show

Choose when to display the vertex normals.

Property	Description
Never	Don’t display the normals.
When Light is selected	Display the normals when the Light properties are open.
Always	Display the normals at all times.

Style

Choose to view all vertex normals or a reduced number.

Property	Description
All normals	Display all normals.
Some normals	Display a reduced number of normals.

Scale

Increase the length of the vertex normals.