This page contains information about our legacy OpenGL renderer. It does not apply if you are using our newer Vulkan renderer.
In the future, the OpenGL renderer will be removed from Vortex Studio. If you require advanced graphics features for a training simulator, we suggest looking at using a third party graphics engine such as Unity™ or Unreal™.

The image generator module lets you visualize your simulation environment with realistic scenes for man-in-the-loop engineering and training.

Hierarchical scene graph allowing nodes to be attached to each other and follow each other’s movements for kinematic articulated structure.
Supports instancing on similar models’ materials and geometries to improve the scalability.
Synchronized by the application framework and reads the information to render from the kinematics of Vortex Master Application.
Configure number of viewports and channels.
Runs multiple monitors on Windows 10 computers with recent hardware and drivers.
- Multi-Monitor support includes Qt Display as well as 3D Display extensions
Directly import 3D graphic assets from FBX, DAE, OSG, IVE or FLT formats.
- FBX Importer creates nodes for 3ds Max’s geometric transforms, if these are present o OBJ Importer is optimized to handle large models with many small triangle fans or strips
Directly export 3D graphic assets to FBX format and re-import them after modifications.
Load textures from PNG, JPEG, TGA, or DDS files, including compressed textures.
Export textures as DDS files and re-import them after modifications.
Control 3D graphic assets materials and visibility independently.
Render emission, occlusion, albedo, specular, gloss, and normal materials using GPU optimized shaders.
- Allow layered textures and masks o Up to 16 textures and masks per graphic material o Up to 4 UV sets per graphic material
- Enhance material’s texture quality using 16x Trilinear Anisotropic Filtering.
Support multiple levels of detail, each with its own geometry, material and maximum distance.
- Existing levels of details can be imported from the 3dsMax exporter for OSG, OSGExp
- Level of Detail feature is computed per-viewport o Debug visualization tool colorizes rendered Graphics Nodes according to the level of detail used for their rendering

Includes ambient, point, spot, and directional lights.
- Up to 128 direct light source using Forward lighting rendering o Up to 16 casted shadows using Cascaded Shadow Map

Mathematics for lighting, blending and materials are done in linear space (Gamma Corrected).
Enable halos on light sources via a selection of built-in textures and effects.
- Halo parameters are set individually for each light o Standalone halos are available as well
- Halos can be directional or omni-directional for a haze-like effect
Control point of view using perspective, orthogonal, or look-through camera, or set a single viewpoint for use with multiple displays.
Generate dust, smoke, splash, or any other type of particle-based effects.
Create realistic outdoor environments with native integration of Sundog Silverlining to render skies for any time at any location (Skydome).
- Environment light sources (Sun, Moon, Ambient)
- Automated connections can be disabled for direct control and tuning of lighting
- Change weather conditions (fog, rain, snow, etc.) at runtime.
- Directly control their visual appearance including density, color, direction, fade, etc.
- Define cloud cover above the scene, including appearance, density, thickness, altitude, and transparency
Add static background from images using cube mapping (Skybox).
Reflect Skybox or Skydome in graphic materials o Checkerboard available as default environment map for reflection in graphics gallery
Create and position text anchored in 2D viewport or in 3D space.
Add text and image overlays, and control their visibility per viewport.
Support synchronized multichannel rendering (with Activate or Engage licenses).
Render camera into Graphic Mesh and create monitor-like effect.
Create flat or curved mirrors and monitors.
- Each mirror and monitor can be tuned and/or de-featured (omit shadows, omit reflections, Far Clip distance, LOD bias) for improved performances
Apply dynamic text to a texture or label for interactive billboard or container numbering.
- Place labels in World space using the Transform Toolbar o Customize position, orientation, size, color, font and text content
- Project textures on the surfaces of 3D models.
- Add surface detail at runtime to any model or terrain: logos, markings, dirt layers, mud splashes, individual signs, etc.
- Place decals in World space using the Transform Toolbar o Decals can be used at the Scene or Mechanism levels
Leave marks or vehicle traces on the ground from any moving object.
- Produce seamless traces on Terrain model from wheel, track or dragged object
Add post-processing effects to camera o Automatic exposure o Desaturate (Black & White) o Noise o High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) o Tone Mapping
Replace Vortex Studio Visualization module by any third-party IGs using built-in ICDs to retrieve all kinematic data.
Support for SpeedTree vegetation with a built-in library of ready to use common vegetation (additional vegetation available from SpeedTree).
- Import ambient-occlusion per-vertex values from SpeedTree and add those to Vortex

Studio ambient-occlusion computations, for more volumetric-looking trees o Vegetation can react to wind

Use Vegetation Field procedural tool to define zones populated with user-selected vegetation assets, replacing the need to manually add individual items to a scene.
- Define vegetation density, including vegetation-free zones o Randomize asset distribution over the area o Automatically instance objects and snap them to terrain topology o Use proper LOD for the objects in the field
  - Any graphics gallery object can be used to populate the vegetation field
Choose from several anti-aliasing methods, improving quality of visuals by smoothing out edges found in a scene and reducing motion flicker.
- FXAA (Fast Approximation Anti-Aliasing): adds a lower quality anti-aliasing that uses fewer system resources
- MSAA (Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing): the higher the number of samples, the higher the quality of the anti-aliasing and thus the cost to performance. Available sampling rates include 2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x.
- SMAA (Sub pixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing): applies a high quality anti-aliasing to the scene, requiring more system resources than FXAA
- SMAA S2x: combines SMAA with MSAA 4x
Enable Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) to approximate ambient occlusion on every object in the scene in real time.
- Add visual volume by replicating the absence of light in corners and crevices o Available as an option in the Editor, and as an extension in the Player
- Adjust and modify the overall colors of a scene with Color Grading.
- Apply filters to enhance mood without modifying models’ base textures o Apply color correction filters o Enables tone mapping using a selection of presets matching color ranges of monitors
Support virtual reality (VR) headsets as display devices. If you have a supported head-mounted display and its drivers properly installed, a simulation can be viewed through it.
- Steam VR/OpenVR support o Supported HMD devices: HTC Vive, HTC Vive Pro, Oculus Rift
Control parameterization and quality of shadows and other feature adaptations (Mirror, Monitor, and Ocean Reflections) in a Scene.
- Automatically synchronize frame-skipping, distributing calculations of shadows, reflections, and displays
- Features data consumption information displayed for performance optimization  Technical preview of Physics-Based Rendering (PBR) lighting model.
- Available in Graphics Materials for setting up photorealistic visuals
  - Considers “metalness” and roughness of surface materials in lighting calculations
  - PBR lighting information can be automatically computed from SkyBox or SkyDome
  - A dedicated Light Probe can also be used to set the environment lighting information
  - Possible to have both specular- and PBR-based Graphics Materials in same scene
  - Note: this is not the final version of the feature. User feedback is welcome.

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