User Guide

50
Adding Textures and Colors
3 Click the object or face whose surface texture you want to edit.
4 In the Object Inspector palette, make sure the Scaling Type is set to the mode you wish
to edit in. See “Scaling modes” on page 47.
5 Specify an offset value by dragging the Offset U (horizontal) and Offset V (vertical)
sliders, or entering values in the Offset U and Offset V text boxes.
Working with anchored texture objects
An anchored texture is projected onto the surfaces to which it is applied from a stationary
position, or anchor. The first time you apply an anchored texture in a world, Atmosphere
Builder creates an anchored texture object. You can change the position and orientation
of this object to change the appearance of the texture in the world.
To change the position and orientation of an anchored texture object:
1 Select a wireframe view: Top, Side, or Isometric.
2 Select the anchored texture object (). (See “Selecting objects” on page 30.)
3 Drag the anchored texture object to the desired position in the wireframe. Rotate the
anchored texture object until it is pointing in the desired direction. (See “Moving objects”
on page 33 and “Rotating objects” on page 40.)
4 Switch to Browser view to see how the texture is applied to surfaces in the world.
Viewing and updating the location of textures
Atmosphere Builder tracks each texture you import into a world as an independent file.
This keeps the world file very small and improves performance in the Atmosphere
Browser. However, it also means that texture files must stay in the same location relative
to the world file. If you move the world file without moving its texture files, Atmosphere
Builder can’t display the objects in the world with surface textures. Instead, Atmosphere
Builder approximates the hue of the missing surface texture with a solid color.
The URL text box in the Object Inspector palette indicates where Atmosphere looks for
the texture file. If a surface texture for an object is missing, you can use the Browse feature
to locate the texture file and update the path to it. You can also replace one texture with
another texture by changing the specified path.
atmosphere.book Page 50 Wednesday, March 21, 2001 6:14 PM