DOF/MBlur Preview Passes

The DOF/MBlur Preview Passes setting sets the number of passes for Depth of Field and Motion Blur previews in the viewport.

Display - Schematic View Tab

Several display options for the Schematic view appear on the Schematic View Tab.

Choose between Straight or Right Angle from the Link Style toggle.

Also, choose between Vertical or Horizontal from the Link Direction toggle.

  • If the Show Goal Links option is active, item links to goals are shown in dotted lines.
  • If the Drag Descendants option is active, moving a parent will move all its children as well.
  • If the Show Plugin Links option is active, motion dependencies from motion and channel modifier plugins are shown as dotted black lines.

Display - Handles And Icons Tab

Handle, Camera, Light and Bone Icon sizes can now be changed and Bone sizes can also be changed individually in the Bone Properties Panel. Draw Bones Filled will draw filled in bones. Handle Wire Smoothing will set the amount of smoothing for handles in the viewport.

  • Draw Joint Rot. Tripod - displays the three arrows showing the axes for Joint-type bones only. This means you can see at a glace the orientation of your Joints without having to select them.
  • Render Thicker Gizmo Handles - Makes the handles for the various gizmos (Move, Rotate, Scale, etc.) bigger in the OpenGL window.

Layout OpenGL Options

Display Characteristic Settings

The Show Motion Paths option toggles the visibility of the motion path and keyframes for the current active item in Layout.

A motion path looks like a line with small white (+) symbols at each keyframe. Motion paths are subdivided into smaller segments corresponding to the number of frames between keyframes. With Show Motion Paths active for an object that is stationary during an animation, the graph will display a single keyframe symbol only, indicating that this is its only keyframe position.

Motion Path for the Right Hand Bone

You have the ability to set the quantity of frames shown before the current frame and after it using the Motion Path Pre- and Post- fields. The setting defaults to 60 to match previous versions of LightWave. Other changes in this area of the GL tab of Preferences are:

  • Use Item Color - If checked, Motion Paths will be drawn using the item color (defaults to on).
  • Show Frame Markers - If checked, Motion Path Frame Markers will be drawn (defaults to on).
  • Show Keyframes - If checked, Motion Path Keyframes will be drawn (defaults to on).

Show Handles

The Show Handles option will display reference handles for the current item when you are moving, rotating, or stretching. These are based on the item’s local axes at its pivot point.

Show IK Chains

The Show IK Chains option will display a solid line for the IK chain and a dotted line for the direction of the item reaching for the goal object.

Show Target Lines

The Show Target Lines option turns on/off the line that connects between an item being targeted and the item targeting it.

Show SubPatch Cages

When using SubPatch objects, you may want to see the SubPatch cage. Activate Show SubPatch Cages, if this is the case.

Show Fog Circles

When you want to see the extent of your fog’s Max Distance and Min Distance on the Volumetrics Tab of the Effects Panel (Scene > Effects > Volumetrics), activate the Show Fog Circles option and use one of the orthogonal views. You will see circles representing the two fog radiuses, a result of the minimum and maximum fog values. Just as the backdrop gradient sphere is centered about the camera, so is fog.

If you activate fog and the Show Fog Circles option, but do not see the indicator, check for the following factors:

  • Verify that Fog Type on the Volumetrics Tab of the Effects Panel is not set to Off.
  • Verify that you are using an orthogonal view.
  • Verify that you should be able to see the fog circles. Are you too close or too far from the camera for the circles to be visible? Use the grid as a guide. Also, is the Overlay color too similar to the object color? Try changing to a different display mode, or try changing the Overlay color (discussed below).

Show Spline Targets

The controls in this section of the GL tab of the Options panel refer to the Spline Control tool.

Overlay Color

The color of the overlays for the field chart, limited region, fog circles, and so on, can be set to any of the standard wireframe colors using the Overlay Color pop-up menu. Setting the Default Overlay Color is saved in preferences. Setting the Overlay Color is not persistent.

Shaded Display Options

The following options affect the shaded OpenGL display characteristics.

Max OpenGL Lights

Enter the maximum number of light sources you want used in the OpenGL display. This lets you see their your lights’ effect right in the viewport in real-time. It is normally set at 8 since most graphics cards have this as a limit. Professional cards can sometime have more OpenGL lights. The number of OpenGL lights set does not affect renders.

OpenGL Textures

Activate to show image-mapped textures (not procedural) in the viewports. Use the Texture Size pop-up menu to select the pixel resolution (e.g., 1024 x 1024). Lower settings will update faster and use fewer system resources, but go all the way to 16384.