Texture types

The Surface, Environments, and Solid sections of the Texture Procedures window list all textures that you can map to the parameter of an environment, shader, texture, or light.

Texturable Values

The Texturable Values section of the Texture Procedures window contains a button for each parameter (of the active environment, shader, light, or texture in the Multi-lister) that you can map a texture to. The button(s) that are pressed will have a texture mapped to them.

Texture parameters

The Color Balance, Intensity, Blur, and Effects parameters are common to all textures.

Color Balance

The Color Balance parameters let you color correct a texture. These parameters are not available when the texture is mapped to certain single-channel parameters (for example, Reflectivity, Bump, Displacement). In these cases, the Color Balance parameters (Rgbmult and Rgboffset) are replaced by the Intensity parameters (Amult and Aoffset). See Intensity.

Rgbmult

A scaling factor applied to the parameter that the texture is mapped to. That is, all colors in the texture are multiplied by the Rgbmult color. For example, you can color correct a texture that appears too green by setting the Rgbmult color to a shade of blue.The default color is white (no effect).

Rgboffset

An offset factor applied to the parameter that the texture is mapped to. That is, all colors in the texture have the Rgboffset color added to them. For example, you can brighten a texture that appears too dark by setting the Rgboffset color to a shade of gray. The default color is black (no effect).

Intensity

The Intensity parameters let you correct the intensity of the texture. These parameters are only available when the texture is mapped to certain single-channel parameters (for example, Reflectivity, Bump, Displacement). In other cases, the Intensity parameters (Amult and Aoffset) are replaced by the Color Balance parameters (Rgbmult and Rgboffset). See Color Balance.

Amult

A scaling factor applied to the parameter that the texture is mapped to. That is, all values in the texture are multiplied by the Amult value. The slider range is 0 to 1. The default value is 1 (no effect).

Aoffset

An offset factor applied to the parameter that the texture is mapped to. That is, all values in the texture have the Aoffset value added to them. For example, if the Amult value is -1 and the Aoffset value is 1, the texture is inverted. The slider range is 0 to 1. The default value is 0 (no effect).

Blur

The Blur parameters control the sharpness of the texture. If the Blur parameter values are both 0, the texture is perfectly sharp. However, a small amount of blur is usually needed to reduce aliasing effects (see Common aliasing problems).

Blurmult

A scaling factor that controls the amount of texture blur in eye space. That is, the further an object is from the camera, the greater the blur effect.

Increase the Blurmult value (for example, to 1) only to reduce aliasing effects caused by sharp textures (see Common aliasing problems). If you want to actually smooth the texture, increase the Bluroffset value.

Lower the Blurmult value (for example, to 0.1) if you are using the texture as a bump or displacement map. If the Blurmult value is high, the bump/displacement appears smoother when the surface is further from the camera.

The slider range is 0 (sharp texture, no blur) to 1 (good anti-aliasing). The default value is 1.

Bluroffset

An offset factor that controls the amount of texture blur in texture space. That is, the amount of blur is the same no matter where the object is relative to the camera. The slider range is 0 (no blur) to 1 (completely blurred). The default value is 0.

Effects

The Effects parameters let you create a variety of texture effects.

Invert

Reverses all texture colors (for example, black becomes white amd white becomes black). For example, you can change a bump or displacement map’s raised regions to depressions and vice versa by setting Invert ON or OFF. The default setting is OFF.

Overlay

Layers another texture on top of the original texture. The overlay texture completely replaces the original texture in the region of a surface where both textures exist.

For example, you can place multiple image file decals onto a model using this parameter. You can also overlay another texture onto the overlaid texture, and another texture onto that one, and so on.

Color Remap

Applies a color map to the texture. The U value of the Color Remap texture is mapped to the original texture’s hue, and the V value is mapped to the original texture’s intensity (the value defined by [R+G+B]/3). The Color Remap parameter acts similar to the Shading Map parameter (see Shading Map).

Smear Map

Stretches the texture in the U and V directions. The intensity of the Smear Map texture determines the magnitude of the stretch, and the hue determines the direction (angle). For example, you can use Smear Map to create swirl and dissolve effects using an animated fractal noise texture.

Convert to Pix

Converts any procedural surface texture to an image file texture. Because procedural textures take longer to render than image file textures, you can use Convert to Pix to reduce rendering time. You can also use it to reduce a texture with several overlays into a single image file texture.

If you click the Convert to Pix button, the following dialog box appears:

You can edit the Image Size value (the size of the image file) and the Image Filename (the name of the image file), and you can turn Anti Aliasing ON or OFF.

The Convert to Pix parameter is only available for surface textures.

Convert to Smear

This parameter is only available for the Projection texture. See Convert to Smear.