Surfaces for the Cineware engine consist of a set of channels, listed on the left side of the dialog box. Each channel represents one surface property (e.g. Luminance, Fog, Environment, Normal, Alpha, Glow, Transparency, Specular, Displacement).
Many surfaces can be simulated using just a few channels. So don’t be intimidated by the numerous channels and their wide range of parameters. Generally speaking, all everyday surfaces can be created using just a handful of these channels.
For any selected channel in the list, its settings and a preview window are seen on the right.
Navigation in Surface Channels
Surface Channels and their associated textures/shaders often include several levels of parameters.
•Click the green down-arrow icon to open the list of associated parameters.
•Use the blue “Step Out” button to return to your previous view.
Color (Cineware Surface Channel)
Diffusion (Cineware Surface Channel)
Irregularities in surface color (works by brightening and darkening the color channel)
Luminance (Cineware Surface Channel)
Transparency (Cineware Surface Channel)
Transparency (including refraction index)
Reflectance (Cineware Surface Channel)
Ability to reflect other objects. Also controls Specular and Color effects.
Environment (Cineware Surface Channel)
Environment reflection (simulates reflection)
Fog (Cineware Surface Channel)
Fog effect
Bump (Cineware Surface Channel)
Virtual bumps on a surface
Normal (Cineware Surface Channel)
Virtual surface irregularity that is lit realistically
Alpha (Cineware Surface Channel)
Localized texture invisibility
Glow (Cineware Surface Channel)
Glow Halo around an object
Displacement (Cineware Surface Channel)
Realistic bumps on a surface
Grass (Cineware Surface Channel)
Create realistic-looking grass as a surface
Illumination (Cineware Surface Channel)
Use the Illumination channel in Surfaces to enable or disable the generation and reception of Global Illumination (GI) to and from this surface, and to control the strength of the caustics effects.