Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
F
The material name, user, and the datablock subpanel.
F
The Preview window.
F
The Surface subpanel, including only the shader nodes added in a vertically ordered
column in the Node Editor window, and already connected to each other.
F
The Volume subpanel, with the similar feature as that of the Surface subpanel.
F
The Displacement subpanel.
F
The Settings subpanel, where we can set the object color, the alpha intensity, the
specularity color, and the hardness as seen in the viewport in non-rendered mode
(Viewport Color, Alpha, Viewport Specular, and Hardness). It also contains the Pass
Index value of the material, a Multiple Importance Sample checkbox, the Volume
sampling methods, the Interpolation, the Homogeneous item to be activated to
accelerate the rendering of volumes, and an option to disable the rendering of the
transparent shadows to accelerate the total rendering.
The Material window not only reflects what we do in the Node Editor window and changes
accordingly (and vice versa), but can also be used to change the values to easily switch the
shaders themselves, and to some extent, to connect them to the other nodes.
The Material and the Node Editor windows are so mutual that there is no prevalence in which
window to use to build a material. Both can be used individually or combined, depending on
preferences or practical utility. In some cases, it can be very handy to switch a shader from the
Surface tab under Material on the right (or a texture from the Texture window as well, but we'll
see textures later), leaving all the settings and the links in the node's network untouched.
There is no question, by the way, that the Material window can become pretty complex
and confusing as a material network grows more and more in complexity, while the graphic
appearance of the Node Editor window shows the same network in a clearer and much
more readable way.
There's more...
Looking at the Rendered viewport, you'll notice that the image is now quite noisy and that
there are white dots in certain areas of the image. These are the infamous fireflies, caused
mainly by transparent, luminescent, or glossy surfaces. Actually, they have been introduced
in the rendering of our Cube by the glossy component.
Here is one way to eliminate the fireflies:
1.
Go to the Render window under the Properties panel.
2.
Uncheck both the Reflective and Refractive Caustics items under the
Light Path subpanel.
3.
This will immediately eliminate the white noise, but alas! It also eliminates
all the caustics (which we would like to keep in the rendering in most cases).
