Mesh detail generator properties

The Mesh detail generator creates surface details from a material and a 3D mesh and blends those details into the parent.

Generation

Refer to Generation Properties.

Random Seeds

Refer to Random seeds properties.

Mesh

Change the size and level of detail (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 does not 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.

Placement

Adjust the placement of nodes.

Rotation

Property	Description
X	Rotate the node on the local x-axis.
Y	Rotate the node on the local y-axis.
Z	Rotate the node on the local z-axis.

Attach

Set how the node attaches to the parent.

Property	Description
Style	Choose the attachment style. None: Attach at the origin but don’t sink the edges into the parent. Sink edges until hidden, discard failures: Sink the edges into the parent. If the edges don’t sink properly, discard the entire node. Sink edges until hidden, keep failures: Sink the edges into the parent. Keep all nodes, even if they don’t sink properly. Wrap: Wrap the x-axis of the mesh around the parent. Y-coordinates set to zero sit on the parent, positive y-coordinates sit outside the parent, and negative y-coordinates sit inside the parent.
Edge source	Determine if the Modeler detects the edges automatically or looks for vertex colors as the edge source. Note: If you plan to export the model as an .obj file, use the Compute option. The .obj file format doesn't support vertex colors. Compute: Detects the edges automatically. Fine tune the compute results with the Offset property. Vertex color - red: Detects red vertex colors. Vertex color - green: Detects green vertex colors. Vertex color - blue: Detects blue vertex colors.
Offset	Set how far off the parent the node sits. To avoid depth conflicts (or z-fighting), set the value above 0.

Blend

Adjust the following properties to blend the edges of the mesh into the parent.

Property	Description
Normals	Align the normals with the parent mesh. Misaligned vertex and parent normals create discontinuity in the lighting. The right side of the profile curve corresponds to the edges of the mesh. The left side corresponds to the middle.
Flatten	Flatten extruding parts of the mesh. This property doesn’t work if Attach:Style is set to None.

Vertex

Use vertex blending to make the edges of the mesh partially transparent.

Property	Description
Style	Choose the vertex blending style. None: No vertex blending. Vertex alpha: Make the edges transparent. Vertex alpha, interior strips: Make the edges transparent and create an opaque copy of the edges so they can be used in Strip shift.
Distance	Increase or decrease how far the transparent area extends out from the parent.
Strip shift	Change the size of the opaque edge copy. This property only works if Vertex:Style is set to Vertex alpha, interior strips.
Offset	Adjust the position of the opaque edge copy. This property only works if Vertex:Style is set to Vertex alpha, interior strips.

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 Material Bar. If None is selected, or the chosen material has no assigned mesh, there will be no geometry generated.
Mesh	Choose which assigned mesh is used. Select a specific mesh or let the system select one for you. Any: Any assigned mesh. Primary: The first mesh listed on the asset. Not the primary: Any mesh but the first one listed.
Weight	Sets probability that a node will receive this material (this weight divided by the sum of all weights).

Season

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

Property	Description
Start offset	Determines when the mesh detail 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 mesh detail to complete its transition. Higher values accelerate the transition. The default value of 1.0 means one year.
Drop time	Controls how long the mesh detail remains attached. A mesh detail 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 mesh details.

Dynamic LOD

The properties in this group control how the mesh reacts to LOD computations. These properties are only available in the Cinema version of the Modeler.

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 mesh details in this generator participate in post-compute processing, such as tree element collisions and shade pruning.

Collision

Define how mesh details in this generator participate in tree element collision computations.

Property	Description
Style	Set how the mesh details behave during collision computations. Everything: Mesh details in this generator collide with each other and all other elements of the collision system. Ignore siblings: Mesh details in this generator ignore siblings but collide with everything else. Knock out others only: Mesh details in this generator can't be removed, but they can eliminate elements in other generators. Nothing: These mesh details 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 mesh details 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 mesh detail size.

Shade Pruning

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

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