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Show Map in Viewport 1289
Show Map in V iewport
Material Editor > Show Map in Viewport
Material Editor menu > Material menu > Show Map in
Viewport
Left: Map shown on sample cube
Right: Map shown in a viewport
Show Map In Viewport displays mapped materials
on the surfaces of objects in viewpor ts with the
interactive renderer (page 3–1124) .
The follow ing conditions must b e met for mapped
materials to display in the v iewport:
• Mapping coordinates (page 3–1061) must be
applied to the object. This is already the c ase
with most primitive objects, which by default
have Generate Mapping Coords on at creation.
If an object doesn ’t have mapping coordinates,
you can turn this on, or apply a mapped
material to the object (if it has a Generate
Mapping Coords check box), or apply a
UVW
Map modifier (page 1–905)
or an Unwrap
UVW mo difier (page 1–867)
.
•Amappedmaterialmustbeappliedtothe
object.
• Show Map In Viewport must be on, either at the
level of the material that contains the
map (page
3–1062)
,oratthetoplevelofthematerial.
Tip: Display ing mapped materials in a view por t
can slow performance. If you don’t need to
view the map, turn off its viewport display.
Note: With the software display dr iver (page
3–884)
, viewports don’t accurately display a
map with transparency that has UV tiling or
mirroring. Also, this driver cannot display a
map on a faceted material.
The state of this button is saved with the material
in the library. When you apply a mapped material
while Show Map In Viewport is active, the object’s
Generate Mapping Coords. check box is tur ned
on. This means that you can drag mapped
materials from the Material Library in the Browser
over objects in your scene, and have the mapped
material appe ar in the viewports.
Tip: Yo u c a n t u r n S h o w M a p I n V i e w p o r t o n o r
off for
all materials by choosing Views menu >
Activate/Deactivate All Maps.
Note: In the Material/Map Browser (page 2–1256)
and Material/Map Navigator (page 2–1291) ,icons
of materials and maps for w hich Show Map in
Viewport is on are red, as shown in the follow ing
example:
3D Ma ps in Viewport s
Show Map In Viewport works for 3D procedural
maps as well as 2D maps.
3D map display in viewports is not necessarily
accurate. To improve the 3D preview, you can use
the
Material Editor Options dialog (page 2–1280)
to set the 3D Map Sample Scale to equal a main
dimension of the object you are applying the map
to. For example, if you want to use the planet map
on a sphere with a radius of 20, change the map
scale from 100 (the default) to 20.