modo bubbble logo

Preferences - Display


Home >> The modo Interface >> Display

back next
comment balloon Comments (5) RSS Icon
0/5 (0 votes)

Accessible from the menu bar under "System > Preferences...", the modo preferences define the default behavior for a variety of options and functions in modo, further customizing the application to suit users particular tastes and needs. The Preferences are categorized into four main functions- Input deals with ways users interact with the application, 'Display' controls the various way viewports display geometry and information. The 'Data' section controls default behaviors for data created in modo and finally 'File I/O' controls how scenes are imported and exported when dealing with external applications.

Pref

OpenGL--

Texture Resolution: This values (set as powers of '2') determines the largest bitmap texture size displayable in modo before modo will resort to mip-mapping method of image display. Mip-mapping is a method of subsequent resamples of an image at a lower resolution that enable faster image drawing to the 3D viewport. Higher settings will increase image quality, but require greater video ram.

Flatness of Perspective: This option determines the amount of perspective in the 3D perspective viewport. Similar to the 'Field of View' option in the Camera options panel. The higher the value, the flatter the perspective, the lower the value the more distorted and extreme the perspective becomes.

Grid Visibility: This option, enabled by default, determines the visibility of the ground plane grid visible in 3D viewports.

OpenGL Point Size: This option determines the size of the on-screen display of vertices, specified in screen pixels. The default value is 3.

Selected Point Size: To make it easier to see their on-screen display, selected (highlighted) vertices can be displayed larger in the 3D viewport, an amount determined by this option. Scale is based off the original 'OpenGL Point Size" option.

Viewport Fit Factor: Users can automatically frame the view of all the elements of a scene to the bounds of the active viewport by using the menu bar commands "View > Fit All" or "View > Fit Selected" (or keyboard equivalents 'A' or 'Shift+A' respectively). This option determines the scaling of the fit. '1' is essentially 100%, fitting the bounding box of the elements to that of the viewports shortest length. The default of '1.5' gives a little breathing room around the elements and ensures the view fits into view regardless of bounding box size.

Transparency--

Selection: When viewing a selection through an opaque surface, this option determines the opacity of the selection highlighting through the surface (kind of like an X-ray). Especially helpful in differentiating front and rear facing selections.

Handles: When viewing tool handles through an opaque surface, this option determines the opacity of the handle itself, making it possible to see the handles through the surface (kind of like an X-ray).

Popups: This option determines the transparency of popup and popover menus in modo, making it possible to still see background elements when making option changes in a menu.

Selection--

Selection Rollovers: Pre-highlighting of elements in a scene helps users to make better selection, making it clear as to what elements will be selected when the mouse button is clicked. The 'Selection Rollover' option determines how the highlighting occurs-
None- No pre-highlighting of elements in the scene.
Manual- Pre-highlighting of elements is based on the current mode (vertices, edges, polygons, items, etc.).
Nearest- Pre-highlighting the nearest geometric component element regardless of mode.

Mouse Regions Trigger Selections: With this option enabled, users can automatically switch between component modes (vertex, edge, polygon) by simply RMB+clicking over the target element. Can be combined with 'Nearest' selection rollover to aide in determining the proper element to click on.

Performance--

VBO Mode: VBO stands for 'Vertex Buffer Object', a method of working and displaying geometry in OpenGL. VBO's offer substantial performance gains over the older immediate mode rendering method, but may also cause problems with older video cards. modo will try to determine the best mode when set to 'Auto', depending on the video cards driver. Users can also manually enable/disable the option with the On/Off options to increase stability.

Viewport Rotation--

Trackball Rotation: This options determines the default navigation rotational type. Trackball style navigation is a common way to rotate the view of a scene, as if the viewport itself was a giant trackball, allowing multiple axes rotation based on the mouse's viewport position. Disabling this option limits viewport rotations to only two axes. This setting can be over-ridden on a per viewport basis.

Override Viewport-Level Trackball Option: When enabled, this option disabled an individual viewports ability to over-ride the Viewport Rotation preference setting, in essence locking all viewport rotation options to the same preference setting.

Backdrop Item--

Include Backdrops in Viewport Fitting: When using the 'Fit' function of a viewport, enabling the 'Include Backdrops' option will account for the size of any visible Backdrop items when calculating bounding box size for the fit action.

Display Backdrops in Uniform Size:

Pixel Size: When importing bitmap images for use as Backdrops, the 'Pixel Size' option determines the measurement of a single pixel in an image upon import, allowing users to place backdrop images scaled to real world size. For example, if 'Pixel Size' is set at 10mm, then a 512x512 image will import at 5.12 meters in size.

Item Drawing--

Default Size for New Scenes: Determines the default drawing size in the 3D viewports for non-mesh items, such as Cameras and Lights. Users can also adjust the scaling values manually in the 'Display' viewport.

Default Size for Current Scenes: Determines the default drawing size in the 3D viewports for non-mesh items added after a scene is created; such as Cameras and Lights when added to a new scene. Users can also adjust the scaling values manually in the 'Display' viewport.

 

Ray GL

RayGL--

RayGL Resolution: When RayGL in-viewport render preview is utilized, this option determines the resolution of the rendered image, initially based off the on-screen size of the 3D viewport. Lower resolutions will update more quickly. There are three options-
Full- Renders at the same pixel resolution of the viewport.
Half- Renders at ½ the resolution of the viewport.
Quarter- Renders at ¼ the resolution of the viewport.

Ray GL Updates: This setting determines the way that the RayGL preview updates (or renders) while working in a 3D viewport- There are three options-
Delayed- This option will update the viewport preview when the mouse button or tool handle is released.
Lazy- This option will update the viewport each time a pause is encountered, regardless of mouse or tool state.
Synchronous- This option will continuously update the viewport, as best as the system is able to process the data, reducing resolution as necessary to keep up.

RayGL Toggles: For memory or calculation intensive scenes users may wish to disable certain effects from being considered in RayGL processing. The various options can be toggled independently -Shadows, Reflections, Refractions, Global Illumination, Displacements, Fur and Fur Low Density. The final setting users can enable reducing the polygons count of fur texture layers without disabling fur entirely.

 

Prefs

3D Information Overlay Toggles: Each 3D viewport displays a variety of information as a HUD (heads-up display) directly in the viewport. Users can control what information is viewed by these toggles-
Morph Map- Displays the name of the currently selected morph map, if available.
Current Selection- Displays selected element information, based on the current mode (component, item or otherwise).
Reference Item-
Selected Channel Count- Displays the number of currently selected (active ) channels in the 'Channels' viewport useful for keyframing.
Deformers Enable State- Displays current state of 'Deformers'. Animated Deformers can be enabled in the 'Viewport Options'.
OpenGL Polygon Count- Displays the number of GL polygons, including those added by Subdivision Surfaces.
Grid Size- Displays the real-world measurement equivalent of the current grid divisions.
Current Tool- Displays current tool information as well as info for 'Falloffs', 'Action Centers' and 'Snap'.

 

Tool Handles--

Large\Small Points: Determines the visible size, in pixels, of manipulator handles displayed on tools (such as those on the Curve drawing tools).

Large\Small Points Hit Size: Determines the hit range, or area where a mouse click will affect the particular tool handle. Typically this value will be larger than the handle size to make it easier to select a particular handle, but making it too large can make it difficult to select a specific handle in a tight cluster.

Handle Line Width: Determines the width, in pixels, of the lines drawn for tool handles, such as the widgets for Move, Rotate and Scale.

Handle Line Hit Width: Determines the hit range, or area where a mouse click will affect the particular tool handle. Typically this value will be larger than the handle size to make it easier to select a particular handle.

Handle Scale--

Standard: Users with very large or very small screens may prefer to set the default size of the tool handles larger or small using this setting. Handles will stay consistent in size regardless of viewport scaling. Users can also interactively scale tool handles by pressing the '-' and '=' keys. (easier to remember as '-' & '+' [minus and plus] though)

Small: Some tools have a smaller secondary handle. Users can adjust its size here based as a percentage of the "Standard' amount.

Plane Handle Ratio: Many tools have additional plane handles, that constrain actions to two axes simultaneously. Users can adjust the plane tool handles size based on the 'Standard' amount.

Draw Style--

Selected Tool Handles: Determines the default drawing behavior for tool handles-
Invisible- No handles display in the viewport.
Basic- Basic tool handles display allowing users to constrain certain function when used, based on the particular tool.
Advanced- When present/available, additional controls or handles will appear on screen to aide in setting certain options for a tool or item. For example, when selecting the Camera item with and any tool with 'Advanced' handles, additional controls become visible for setting 'Focal Distance' and 'F-Stop'.

Unselected Tool Handles: Depending on the tool, additional handles may display in the viewport, especially those related to setting falloff positions and sizes. The 'Unselected Tool Handle' option determines the drawing options for these types of additional handles.

Auto-Haul Display: Some tools can be enhanced with additional on-screen controls. For example, advanced in-viewport sliders can specify Bevel 'Shift' and 'Inset'. This option determines whether or not to draw such additional helpers.
Off- Disables display of additional on-screen tool Auto-Haul Displays.
Basic- Displays only basic tool handles.
Advanced- Displays only advanced tool handles when available.
On- Displays on Screen Auto-Haul handles defaulting the settings of the preset itself as determined by its options in the Tool Pipe.

 

Pref Colors

Colors--

Users can customize the colors of many aspects of modo related to the 3D viewports (application specific viewports don't have directly editable color schemes). Users should note that modifying colors in 'Preferences' will not modify the actual default viewport colors. In order to apply a color scheme to a viewport, users will first need to adjust the colors in this section, then use the 'Save to Scheme' function and assign a new name using this dialog box-

Color Scheme Dialogie

Once a scheme name has been set, users will need to switch back to the particular 3D viewport they wish to apply the scheme to. Presets can be applied on a per-viewport basis, determined by its 'Active' status. Active viewports are separated by the thumb changing to an orange color (the thumb is the small dimple in the upper left corner of a 3D viewport). Users can set any viewport as 'Active, by simply LMB+clicking anywhere over the viewport window. Next, invoke the menu bar command "View > Viewport Color Scheme" and select the previously saved scheme from the drop-down menu list. The following elements of modo can be customized--
Background- The viewport background color when GL Background option is set to 'None' or 'Gradient'.
Grid- The main ground plane grid visible in every 3D perspective viewport.
Work Plane- The adjustable construction plane.
Wireframe- Default 'Uniform' wireframe draw color, can be over ridden by individual item Draw options.
Color Wireframe- Default 'Color' wireframe draw color, can be overridden by individual item Draw options.
Background Item- Inactive mesh color, also considered Background or Unselected.
Instance- Instanced item duplicates.
Solid- Geometry display color when using the 'Solid' GL viewport display style.
Patch Cage- When SubDivision display cage option is enabled, this determines its color.
Discontinuous Pair- Color referencing discontinuous edges in UV mode.
Selection- Element selection color for all selection types, Component, Item and otherwise.
Selection Fill- Fill Color of Selected Elements, can be set different from selection itself.
Child Highlight- When a Parent item is selected, child items can have a custom color referencing their relationship to the selected item.
Assembly Highlight- Highlighted mouse-over color of Assemblies.
Lasso- Color of line drawn when drag selecting elements with a lasso.
Handle- Unselected action area of tool.
Active- Selected Action area of tool.
Axis X/Y/Z- Colors for constrainable tool handles for each axis.
Guide- When using Snapping > Constrain to > Guides, this option determines guide color.
Cage- Color for Spline/Curve Cage edges.
Label- Item Label as determined by 'Display' options.
Range Cool- When "View > Show Falloffs" is enabled, determines cool range of falloff.
Range Warm- When "View > Show Falloffs" is enabled, determines warm range of falloff.
Unsnapped- When snapping elements, a small pre-highlight displays when elements are in close proximity, defined by this color.
Selection- Color for on-screen informational text display of selected elements.
Info- Color for on-screen informational text display.
Generic- Generic selection roll-over pre-highlighting color.
Face- Geometry face roll-over pre-highlighting color.
Subdivision- modo Subdivision surface geometry roll-over pre-highlighting color.
Catmull-Clark- Catmull-Clark geometry roll-over pre-highlighting color.

 

Presf

Rendering--

Automatic Render Threads: When enabled, modo will determine the number of threads automatically based on the number of CPU cores and other factors, such as Hyper-Threading support.

Render Threads: When 'Automatic Render Threads' is disabled, users can manually set the number of 'Render Threads'; which reflects modo's ability to simultaneously calculate rendering information, each calculation taking place as its own thread. The greater the number of threads, the faster scenes will render. However, there will be a point of diminishing returns, where overhead of thread management will outweighs benefits of the extra threads. Generally speaking, the best performance is obtained when the number of threads equals the number of total cores, virtual or otherwise.

Geometry Cache Size: This value, set as GB (Gigabytes or 1 billion bytes) determines the maximum amount of system RAM modo will use to parse scene geometry for rendering. When the amount of geometry exceeds this value, an error message will be displayed. Users can increase this value to render geometry intensive scenes, such as those using 'Fur' and 'Subdivision Surfaces' with 'Micro Poly Displacement'. For 32-bit systems, this cannot exceed the maximum amount of addressable ram (minus that needed by the system itself), typically around 3GB. For 64bit systems, the amount can be much greater, dependant only on the amount of available RAM.

Use Network Render Nodes: When enabled, modo will seek out additional online modo slaves, and use the network attached systems for additional rendering horsepower. Network rendering utilizes Apple Computers Bonjour technology for simple network discovery, installed when modo was installed. For more on setting up modo to network render, please reference the networking rendering page of the documentation.

Network Job Size: The 'Network Job Size' setting determines the number of buckets distributed to the Slave machines. The general rule is to take the total number of slave cores for rendering and multiply it by two, producing double the number of total buckets to be distributed. Depending on the scene makeup and network speed, the default 200% value (i.e. 2x) may not be optimal for load balancing across the network. If the master machine tends to sit idle, it may help to increase this setting.

Network Shared Directory: To utilize Network Rendering, all systems will need to see a single network shared directory. Once sharing is properly assigned, users can set the directory using this option.

Default Gamma Output: When adding new Render Output layers to the Shader Tree, this value determines the default Gamma setting for the item. Users may over-ride this value by adjusting the same value within the Render Output item.

Independent Display Gamma: When this option is enabled, users may specify an independent gamma value for the Render Display window. Users working in what is called a 'Linear Workflow' where images maps and render outputs are linearized for further down-stream compositing will benefit from previewing the images in the Render Display viewport with the final gamma, as opposed to the output gamma, streamlining the workflow.

Display Gamma: This option determines the default gamma amount for the Render Output display when 'Independent Display Gamma' is enabled. This option is independent from the 'Default Gamma Output' value, and only affects the display of images, not how they are saved or exported. Users may also over-ride this value in the Render Display window itself.

Affect Color Control Swatches and Picker: When this option is enabled, The Color Picker, Preset Swatches and UI color selectors are adjusted to take into account the 'Display Gamma' value, making it easier to ascertain accurate colors when using a gamma corrected workflow.

Color Picker Stops: This option sets the default 'Stops' value for the Color Picker viewport.

Affect Color Control Swatches: When this option is enabled, the UI advanced color selectors are affected by the 'Color Picker Stops' value.

Bake UV Border Size: When Baking a texture, or applying the 'Expand UV Seams' command, this option determines the amount of expansion around the UV border. The default value of 3 pixels is generally fine in most instances. When generating very high resolution images, or in cases simply where texture seams are visible, users may benefit from increasing this value.

Write Buckets Directory: When users enable the 'Write Buckets to Disk' function, this option determines the specific directory where these files are written.

Recent Frames Directory: modo saves the 10 most recent rendered images in the Render Display viewport which are persistent across modo sessions (until overwritten by a more recent render, of course). This option determines the directory where these files are saved.

Output Filename Style: Users can use this option to direct modo on how many leading zeros to place after a filename (and before the prefix) when saving numbered animation sequences.

Block System Sleep While Rendering: This option, when enabled, will block the system from entering low power usage 'Sleep Mode' when rendering. When disabled, modo may stop functioning properly when the system enters 'Sleep Mode' while rendering.

 

Prefs

Preview Draft Quality Settings--
When using a preview viewport, the following options determine the quality settings solely for the preview viewport itself. Users can throttle material and render setting values for more responsive preview performance.

Displacement Rate Multiplier: Sets the maximum Displacement rate for Micro Poly Displacement.

Quality: Sets the preview 'Quality' as a percentage. At 50%, all 'Samples', 'Number of Rays' and other related quality setting will be cut in half reducing rendering quality, but increasing performance.

Antialiasing Samples: Sets the maximum amount of Antialiasing applied to the preview.

Max GI Bounces: A general quality settings multipliers that throttles the total number of rays related to IC, Transparency, Reflections and Refractions. The default setting of 50% reduces the total number of rays specified by half.

Max MC Rays: This option determines the maximum number of Monte Carlo global illumination rays used to calculate indirect lighting.

Max IC Rays: This option determines the maximum number of Irradiance Cache rays used to calculate indirect lighting.

Other Settings--

Extended Refinement Passes: This value determines the maximum number of rays when using the Extended Refinement Passes option for 'RayGL' and 'Preview' quality. Once modo arrives at the number of samples as determined by the item settings, modo will continue firing rays for IC, MC, Reflections, Refractions, Transparency and Subsurface Scattering up to the number of rays set here. This option allows for interactive style rendering when using the Preview viewport.

Bucket Order: This option determines the update order of buckets-
Semi-Random- Updates buckets in a semi-random order providing a more iterative update to the render.
Scanline- Updates the buckets in a left to right, top to bottom order producing a more regular update pattern.

Preview Thumbnail: Determines the default rendering style for Preview Thumbnail icons when saving Preset materials.

 

comment balloon Comments (5) RSS Icon

Emma Beckett January 19, 2011 at 1:59 AM

What does the secondary irradiance cache do? What are the advantages or disadvantages of turning it on?

Jonathan_K January 24, 2011 at 7:51 AM

I second gelfie's question- gotta document ALL buttons X-)

MickyB May 23, 2011 at 5:00 AM

+1

Jonathan_K June 6, 2011 at 8:02 AM

+2

CharlieLapp July 16, 2011 at 12:36 PM

+3

Top

back next