Artist Guide Overview

• 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.