Hardware Acceleration Options

This dialog box is available from the Settings button in 3D Styles if you have chosen Hardware acceleration as your 3D engine.

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Check the boxes of the effects you want to use when generating 3D images with the Hardware acceleration Engine:

Headlight: Controls the light coming from the direction of the camera (on/off). Headlight On provides extra light and associated shadow effects in the model. Turn Off to make flat surfaces look flatter.

Highlights: Display specular reflections as highlights.

Emission: Use if you have chosen or created light emitting Surfaces and want this quality to be displayed.

Smooth Surfaces: Use to control the degree of smoothing. Curved surfaces, which are normally approximated by flat planes, are represented by more lifelike surfaces when this option is on.

Textures: Display bitmapped pictures on the corresponding surfaces.

Ignore hardware acceleration in 3D: Archicad will bypass the display card’s Hardware acceleration support and use the system-level software emulation of Hardware acceleration, available both on Windows and Mac.

Note: Software emulation is a slower method. Use it if you are experiencing difficulties with Hardware acceleration display.

Smoothness of Visual Feedback during Navigation

Customize feedback speed in Frames per Second: If you check this box, the slider below is activated. Use the slider to set feedback speed in frames per second.

Note: In case of a high Frames per Second value, some elements may not be displayed during navigation. See below.

Always display all elements located within the following radius: This slider fine-tunes your feedback speed preference: regardless of the effect of the Frames per Second set above (which may result in some elements not being shown during navigation), you can set a minimum radius here, within which all elements will be shown during navigation. (Set the radius either numerically or using the slider.)

Automatic Correction for Optimized Visual Feedback

Archicad uses an algorithm to maintain feedback speed when navigating in complex models using Hardware acceleration. The algorithm may cause certain “secondary” elements to temporarily disappear:

“Secondary” elements are displayed based on their distance from the viewcone. Close-in elements are prioritized, and those furthest away are – if necessary – the first to be dropped.

“Primary” elements never disappear during navigation, regardless of FPS. Key elements for finding your way are always displayed.

This algorithm applies ONLY if 3D navigation falls below a set Frames per Second (FPS) rate, as defined by the user, and only until FPS reaches an acceptable threshold.

Read More.