Flames material

A constant material with displacement using normal falloff to simulate flames.

See also: Front face , Normal falloff , Spline , Texture

This material is a constant shader and is not affected by lighting. The surface color is uses the noramlfalloff VOP to determine the color. Normal Falloff is the cosine of the angle between the camera ray and the surface normal. The opacity is also determined with normal falloff plus a texture map. A vertical ramp is suggested, to taper the opacity off towards the top. The variance between the camera ray and the surface normal is created by the displacement value. There is also a mask to control the amount of displacement in the designated areas. Again a vertical ramp is suggested to taper the displacement off towards the top.

Parameters

Surface

Color Intensity	A multiplier to darken or brighten the surface color.
Color Shift	This is an exponent which effects how quickly the falloff goes to 0. Higher numbers make the center stronger and the edges more transparent. Or visa versa if the Flip toggle is on. See normal falloff for more information.
Tint with Point Color	If this box is checked and the point color, (`Cd`), is defined, then that color is multiplied with the result of the color ramp.
Ensure Faces Point Forward	If this toggle is on, faces on the side of the object away from the camera are shaded as well as those facing the camera. See front face for more information.

Colors

Flame Base Color	The first color in the ramp. When the driver of the spline is 0, this is the color returned. Defaults to very dark blue.
Flame Color 2	The next color in the ramp. When the driver of the spline is 0.2, this is the color returned. Defaults to deep purple.
Flame Color 3	The next color in the ramp. When the driver of the spline is 0.4, this is the color returned. Defaults to red.
Flame Color 4	The next color in the ramp. When the driver of the spline is 0.6, this is the color returned. Defaults to orange.
Flame Color 5	The next color in the ramp. When the driver of the spline is 0.8, this is the color returned. Defaults to yellow.
Flame Color 6	The last color in the ramp. When the driver of the spline is 1, this is the color returned. Defaults to white. More may be added as desired.
Flip	If this toggle is on the surfaces facing the camera are opaque and the edges transparent. If off, the edges are opaque and the centers transparent. See normal falloff for more information.

Opacity

Opacity	The base opacity color for this material.
Use Opacity Mask	If this box is checked, the Opacity is multiplied by the texture map in Mask File. Defaults to off.
Mask File	This the name of the opacity mask file. The icon to the right opens a file browser. A vertical ramp is suggested to taper the opacity off towards the top.
Mask Channel	Picks which channel of the texture is used for the mask. This allows using the one map for 3 masks. The default is lum which uses the luminance of all the channels in the texture as the mask.
Mask Wrap	Determines what the texture looks like when the texture coordinates are larger or less than 0 to 1. The options are: Repeat means the texture will repeat (tile). Streak means the texture color at the edges is clamped and streaks outside the map. Decal sets the color outside the texture map to the Border Color. See texture for more information.
Mask Filter	Type of anti-aliasing filter used. See texture for more information.
Mask Filter Width	Filter Width is the number of pixels, in both u and v directions, to use in filtering. See texture for more information.
Mask Border Color	The color used outside the map if Decal Wrap is selected. See texture for more information.

Displacement

Overall scale

Controls the overall scale of the rough areas.

Pattern

Noise Frequency	This value controls how "wiggly" the flames are. Smaller values will benefit from higher Octaves values. Low Frequency and low Octaves give very smooth flames.
Noise Offset	This vector positions the noise in x, y, and z. This vector can be used to animate the flames. As an example, a positive `$T` times some speed value in y, gives the appearance the flames are "rising". Positive values in x and negative values in z (or vise versa) give a "swirling" appearance.
Noise Jitter	This vector specifies the amount of jitter in x, y, and z. This affects the amount of variance in the displacement and therefore the color.
Noise Octaves	This value controls the amount of details in the noise. This is the number of times the noise function is called and added to the previous value. If the Frequency is high, there is no need for so much detail, 1 or 2 should be plenty. More octaves can affects the overall scale of the displacement as more summing will result in higher base values.
Octave Stepsize	This value determines the space between the Octaves. Lower values generate "looser" flames. Higher values give more frenzied flames.

Mask

Use Mask	If this box is checked, the Overall Scale is multiplied by the texture map in Displacement Mask. Defaults to off.
Mask File	This the name of the mask file. The icon to the right opens a file browser. A vertical ramp is suggested to taper the displacement off towards the top.
Mask Channel	Picks which channel of the texture is used for the mask. This allows using the one map for 3 masks. The default is lum which uses the luminance of all the channels in the texture as the mask.
Mask Wrap	Determines what the texture looks like when the texture coordinates are larger or less than 0 to 1. The options are: Repeat means the texture will repeat (tile). Streak means the texture value at the edges is clamped and streaks outside the map. Decal sets the color outside the texture map to the Border Color. See texture for more information.
Mask Filter	Type of anti-aliasing filter used. See texture for more information.
Mask Filter Width	Filter Width is the number of pixels, in both u and v directions, to use in filtering.
Mask Border Color	The color used outside the map if Decal Wrap is selected. This should be selected based on the Displacement Offset.

Properties

Displacement Bounds

Usually tying this value to the displacement Overall Scale should work well. However making the displacement bounds as small as possible, without causing "rips" in the render, can lower render times. See render properties for more information.

Displacement Space

The space in which you specify displacement bounds. The default, "Bounds specified in object space" is the recommended value.

object Displacements occur in object space.
camera Displacements occur in camera space.
world Displacements currently an alias for camera.

True Displacements

When running displacement shaders, whether the VEX variable P is actually moved (true displacement) or whether bump mapping will be performed.