The Counter 1 texture is one of the many procedurally generated textures provided with MODO. Procedural textures are mathematically created at render-time, and therefore have no fixed resolution, they can be magnified nearly infinitely with no visual loss in detail. The shaders in the Display group differ from the other Enhance:MODO textures in that they present procedurally generated text rather than traditional textures. Similar to the other shaders, Counter 1 can be addressed by its two zones, the 'Background' and 'Foreground' colors, with each zone having either a 'Value', or a 'Color' and 'Alpha'. For Counter 1, the foreground color specifically controls the display text. The applied Zone is dependent on the 'Effect' to which the texture will be applied. For instance, if the texture is applied as a 'Displacement', the 'Value' settings would be utilized, whereas setting the texture Effect to 'Diffuse Color' would use the 'Color' and 'Alpha' settings for Background and Foreground. The look of this particular shader is a digital timer readout, such as those seen on a speedometer or a clock.
For information regarding adding and working with Shader Tree Items Layers please reference the Shader Tree page of the documentation.
Layer--
Enable: Toggles the effect of the layer on and off, duplicating the functionality of toggling visibility in the Shader Tree. When un-checked (disabled), the layer has no effect on the shading of the scene. However, disabled layers are saved with the scene and are persistent across MODO sessions.
Invert: Inverts the RGB values for the layer producing a negative effect.
Blend Mode: Affects blending between different layers of the same effect type, allowing user the ability to stack several layers for different effects. For more on blending, please reference the 'Blend Modes' page of the documentation.
Opacity: Changes the transparency of the current layer. Reducing this value will increasingly reveal lower layers in the shader tree if present, or dim the effect of the layer itself on the surface.
Locator: Most texture layers also have an associated 'Texture Locator' that is automatically created in the 'Item List'. This defines the mapping of the texture (the way it is applied) to the surface. The 'Locator' option sets that association. While users can choose alternate locators, the need to do so will be very rare; still, there are some possible instances where users may want multiple texture items to share a single locator.
Display - Counter 1 --
Number of Characters: This value determines the total number of characters to display.
Character Gap: This value determines the spacing between the individual characters within the overall content dimensions.
Character Scroll: This value allows the characters to scroll on a character-by-character basis. As this value is increased the characters will scroll from left to right.
Character Skew: This value applies a skew to all of the display characters. Positive values will skew the characters to the right, while negative values will skew the characters to the left.
Segment Thickness: This value defines the thickness of the individual segments for each display character.
Segment Gap: This value determines the spacing between the individual segments for each character
No. Of Leading Zeros: This value prefixes the counter with a defined number of zeros.
Decimal Point: This value determines the number of zeros to be shown after a decimal point.
Count Value: This value determines the number that is shown in the display. In the case of time, the value is represented in seconds, then converted to hours:minutes in the display.
Number Base: This option determines the number base used to display the count value. The options are Decimal, Hexadecimal, Octal and Binary.
Counter Format: This option determines the format of the count for display. Options are Simple Count, Realtime Clock,or SMPTE time code (either SMPTE24, SMPTE25 or SMPTE30.)
24 Hour Clock: This option forces a 24 hour clock display when the Realtime Clock option is selected in the Counter Format.
Display Seconds: When this option is enabled, and the Counter Format is set to Realtime Clock, the character for seconds will be included in the display.
Draw Unlit Segments: When this option is enabled all of the unlit segments and decimals will be included in the display.
Scroll Direction: When this option is enabled, the scroll direction will switch from the default setting of left to right and scroll from right to left.
Swap UV: When this option is enabled the UV coordinates of the display text are swapped.
Flip U: When this top is enabled it flips the U coordinates of the display text.
U Offset: This value determines U (horizontal) offset of the display text.
V Offset: This value determines V (vertical) offset of the display text.
Output Controls--
Lower Clip: This value determines a clip level for the Background Color/Value, truncating values beyond the defined setting. Combined with the Upper Clip value, users can apply this option to extend or contract the total range of values for the texture.
Upper Clip: This value determines a clip level for the Foreground Color/Value, truncating values beyond the defined setting. Combined with the Lower Clip value, users can apply this option to extend or contract the total range of values for the texture.
Bias: Increasing this value will cause the texture to favor the foreground color over the background color, whereas decreasing the value causes the background color to be favored.
Gain: The Gain setting is similar to a gamma control that effects the falloff of the gradient ramp between the two color values. Setting the Gain to 100% will create a very sharp falloff effect, whereas setting the value to 0% would create a plateau around the value or color mid-point with sharp falloff on either extreme of the gradient.
Output Regions: When the 'Output Regions' options is enabled, the procedural texture will output random grey shades per region rather than outlines for tiles providing users a means to add random variety to the procedurally created texture. Users can further control the amount of variation using the 'Regional HSV' process layer.
Background Color/Value: This value determines the Color (or Value) of the texture's Background area, which will ramp toward the Foreground Color/Value.
Background Alpha: This value determines the Alpha transparency of the Background Color.
Background - Use Last Layer: When this option is enabled the Background Color area will be completely transparent, revealing the shading results of any lower layers.
Foreground Color/Value: This value determines the Color (or Value) of the texture's Foreground area, which will ramp toward the Background Color/Value.
Foreground Alpha: This value determines the Alpha transparency of the Foreground Color.
Foreground - Use Last Layer: When this option is enabled the Foreground Color area will be completely transparent, revealing the shading results of any lower layers.
