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750 Chapter 8: Modifiers
You see the effect immediately in a smooth
shaded viewport. D o a test rendering to see the
effect on the renderer.
The following parameters are stored for each
level: Face Threshold, Edge Threshold, Bias, Max
Edge Len, Material Boundaries, and Smooth
Boundaries.
Inter face
LevelofDetailgroup
R end er er L1 , L2 —Set the level of display for the
defaultscanlinerenderer. UseViewportsL1
and L2 to change the stored optimization level.
Default=L1.
Viewports L1, L2—Set the optimizat ion level for
both viewport and renderer. Also toggles the level
of display for the viewport. Default=L1.
Optimize group
Adjusts the degree of optimization.
Face Thresh—Sets the threshold angle used
to determine which faces are collapsed. Low
values produce less optimization but better
approximations of the original shape. Higher
values improve optimization, but are more likely
to result in faces that render poorly (see Bias).
Default=4.0.
Edge Thresh—Sets a different threshold angle for
open edges (those that bound only one face). A
low value preserves open edges. At the same time
you can apply a high face threshold to get good
optimization. Default=1.0.
Bias—Helps eliminate the skinny or degenerate
triangles that occur during optimization, which
can cause rendering artifacts. Higher values keeps
triangles from becoming degenerate. The default
of 0.1 is enough to eliminate the skinniest triangles.
Range=0.0to1.0(a0valueturnsBiasoff).
Max Edge Len—Specifies the maximum length,
beyond which an edge cannot b e stretched when
optimized. When Max Edge Len is 0, it has no
effect. Any value greater than 0 specifies the
maximum length of the edges. Default=0.0.
Along with Bias, this control helps you avoid
creating long sk inny faces while optimizing.
Auto Ed ge—Turns edges on a nd of f follow ing
optimizat ion. Tur ns on any open edges. Turns
off any edges between faces whose normals are
w ithin the face threshold; such edges b e yond the
threshold are not turned on. Default=off.