9

SuperSampling Rollout 1459
The Material Editor replaces the original
mater ial.
To change a ma ter ia l t y pe:
1.
At the level of a material, click the Type button
below the Material Editor toolbar.
AmodalMaterial/Map Browser (page 2–1412)
is displayed. If you were at a material when you
clicked Type, the Browser lists only m aterials (if
you were at a map, it lists only maps).
2. Choose a material from the list, and then click
OK.
If you choose a compound material, a Replace
Material (page 2–1456) dialog is displayed.
This dialog lets you choose whether to keep or
discard the original material.
The Material Editor now displays controls for
the new material.
Super S ampling R ol lout
Material Edi tor > Architec tu ral material > SuperSampling
rollout
Material Editor > Raytrace m aterial > SuperSampling
rollout
Material Editor > Standard material > SuperSampling
rollout
The SuperSampling rollout is used by
Architectural, Ray t r ace, and Standard. It lets you
choose a supersampling method (page 3–1018).
Supersampling performs an additional antialiasing
(page 3–907) pass on the material. This requires
more t ime but can improve image qual ity.
Supersampling is especially helpful when you need
to render very smo oth specular highlights, subtle
bump mapping, or high resolutions.
In 3ds Max the default is to apply a single
supersampling method to all materials in the
scene. This feature gives you more control over
your scenes, especially larger models that make
use of many materials, by letting you control the
supersampling at a global level from the Rendering
dialog. You can override this locally by turning
off Use Global Settings. It also gives you file
compatibility and workflow replication with DRF
files imported from VIZ Render.
Note: SuperSampling settings are ignored by the
mental ray Renderer (page 3–78),whichhasits
own sampling method.
Use supersampling when you notice artifacts in
your final renderings. For example, a thin bump
map might produce scintillating, jagged bumps
that supersampling can correct. Supersampling
requires considerably more time to render,
although it does not necessarily require any
additional RAM.
Note: Supersampling is not processed when
you turn off Antialiasing in the production
renderer (page 3–27). You can also globally
disable supersampling for a ll materials u sing the
parameters for the defaul t scanline renderer (page
3–38). Globally disabling supersampling can
speed up test renderings.
Supersampling uses smaller sampling points, and returns
averaged values to increase the antialiasing effect.
Supersampling and Antialiasing
Supersamplingisoneofseveralantialiasing
techniques. Textures, shadows, highlights, and