Visual Effects tab

Options on the Visual Effects tab are visual effects that can be added to enhance visualization.

Visual Effects

Ambient Occlusion

Adds shadows where pieces of geometry intersect at various angles (most visibly in corners) by calculating the amount of ambient light that reaches those intersections, making visualization more realistic.

Enable: Select this checkbox to use the slider to adjust the amount of Ambient Occlusion. You may type the value in the adjacent box.

A visualization with Ambient Occlusion disabled.

A visualization with Ambient Occlusion enabled. Note the subtle shadows that appear where the stage meets the floor, on the stairs, and where the pedestals meet the stage.

Global Illumination

Simulates the indirect illumination of light bouncing off of geometric surfaces onto other surfaces.

Enable: Select this checkbox to activate the Global Illumination settings.
Refinement Rate: Defines the speed at which the Global Illumination effect should be processed. Selecting a higher option decreases performance, especially if the camera is moving around.
Low: Applies the slowest processing speed which results in the most visible "shimmering" view from a moving camera.
Medium: Applies a slightly faster processing speed which results in less visible "shimmering" view from a moving camera.
High: Selected by default, High applies fast processing speed that further decreases the visible "shimmering" view from a moving camera.
Instant: Applies the fastest processing speed with the least visible "shimmering" view from a moving camera.
Method: Determines how object are illuminated. Approximation Method 1 illuminates objects from all directions. Approximation Method 2 illuminates only the visible sides of an object.
Range: Determines how far illumination will travel from objects.
Brightness: Determines how luminous objects will appear.
Quality: Determines the quality of light illuminated from the object.

Note: Performance degradation may occur while playing back a Camera Path if Global Illumination is enabled, regardless of the selected Refinement Rate.

A visualization with Global Illumination disabled.

A visualization with Global Illumination enabled. Note how the glowing cylinders light up the environment.

Source Disc

Creates a halo of light around a fixture's aperture to simulate light diffusion for very bright sources.

Bloom: Select this checkbox and use the slider to adjust the size and brightness of the Source Disc from fixtures in Shaded view. You may type the value in the adjacent box.

A visualization with Source Disc Bloom disabled.

A visualization with Source Disc Bloom enabled. There appears a slight bloom or halo of blue light around the Fixtures' Source Disc.

Light Emission

Creates a glow effect from objects for which Light Emission has been enabled to simulate light emitting from light boxes, projection screens, etc.

Glow: Select this checkbox and use the slider to adjust the glow effect from the light emitting objects in Shaded view. You may type the value in the adjacent box.

Light Emission is enabled in the Light Emission tab of the object’s Properties window.

Note: This option can be disabled per-Object/per-Element via Light Emission or LED Wall tabs in objects’ Properties.

Laser Beams

Creates the glow effect from the beams of lasers in a scene.

Glow: Select this checkbox to enable and adjust the Range and Brightness of the glow effect from laser beams.
Range: Use the slider to adjust the length of the glow effect from the laser beam.
Brightness: Use the slider to adjust the intensity of the glow effect from the laser beam.

Note: This setting is not to be confused with the intensity/brightness of the laser beam itself, which may be adjusted from the laser fixture’s Properties > Fixture > Beam Options tab (by modifying the Beam slider).