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Ventuz Introduction

  • Introduction
  • Getting Started
  • Ventuz Editions
  • Ventuz Products
  • Realtime Rendering
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Common Mistakes
  • Deploying a Ventuz Presentation
  • Scene Performance and Tweaks

Quick Guides

  • Quick Guide Index
  • Business Logic
  • 3D Art
  • 2D Art
  • Programming
  • System Engineer

General

  • Index
  • What's New
  • Ventuz System Requirements
  • Configuration Editor
  • Device Configuration
  • Machine Configuration
  • Render Setup Editor
  • Introduction to Compositions, Screens and Outputs
  • Explanation of Compositions, Screens and Outputs
  • Live Runtime Control
  • Project and Show Management
  • Web Configuration Editor
  • Communication Protocol Overview
  • GPI Configuration for Runtime or Director
  • Introduction to the Ventuz Video Engine
  • Supported Formats
  • Supported Hardware
  • Color Management and HDR Workflow
  • Multisampling / Anti-Aliasing
  • Input Subsystem
  • Ventuz Proprietary Files
  • Migrating Configs & Content to Ventuz 8
  • Migrating Content to Ventuz 7
  • Migrating Content to Ventuz 6
  • Migrating Content to Ventuz 5
  • Summary Shortcuts
  • Terminology
  • Manual Index

Ventuz Designer

  • Designer Indices
Introduction
  • Designer Introduction Index
  • Designer Overview
  • Realtime Rendering
  • Project Browser
  • Designer Interface
  • Designer Options
  • Working with Nodes
  • Hierarchy and Content Editors
  • 2D Workflow
  • 3D Workflow
  • PBR Workflow
  • Animation Workflow
  • Best Practices
  • Reading Data in Ventuz
  • Display Images and Movies
  • Scene Performance and Tweaks
  • Deploying a Ventuz Presentation
  • Render to Disk
  • Multi Screen and Output Setup
  • Explanation of Compositions, Screens and Outputs
  • Workflow of using Multi Screens
  • Multi GPU
  • Previs
User Interface
  • Designer User Interface Index
  • Designer Interface
  • Renderer Window
  • Layer Editor
  • Property Editor
  • Property Groups
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Content Editor
  • Find and Replace
  • Toolbox
  • Animation Editor
  • Shader Editor
  • Text Editor
  • Message View
  • Scene Tree
  • Stage Editor
  • Container Outline
  • Watches Editor
  • Scene Control Window
  • Performance Statistics
2D Workflow
  • 2D Workflow Index
  • 2D Workflow
  • Layer Editor
  • Common Layer Properties
  • IPP Effects
  • Color Correction FX
  • Distortion FX
  • Filter FX
  • Hierarchy and Content Editors
  • Display Images and Movies
3D Workflow
  • 3D Workflow Index
  • 3D Workflow
  • Hierarchy and Content Editors
  • Renderer Window
  • Camera Navigation
  • Manipulate Objects with Gizmos
  • In-Scene Editing
  • Layer Editor
  • Property Editor
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Working with Nodes
  • Isolated Objects
  • Containers
  • Text Rendering
  • Character Sets
  • Geometry Import
  • Color Management and HDR Workflow
  • Display Images and Movies
  • Particle System
  • Creating Realistic Reflections
  • Unreal Integration
  • Notch Integration
  • E2E Node Overview
Logic Workflow
  • Logic Workflow Index
  • Hierarchy and Content Editors
  • Content Editor
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Working with Nodes
  • Property Editor
  • Containers
  • Project and Scene Data
  • Reading Data in Ventuz
  • Display Images and Movies
  • Input Subsystem
  • Multitouch
  • TUIO Protocol
  • Open Sound Control
  • Unreal Integration
  • Notch Integration
  • E2E Node Overview
Animation Workflow
  • Animation Workflow Index
  • Animation Workflow
  • Animation Editor
  • Content Editor
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Property Editor
  • Animation and State Engine
  • Templates
  • Template Engine
  • Scene Transitions
  • Unreal Integration
  • Notch Integration
Project Structure
  • Project Structure Index
  • Annotations
  • Project Documentation
  • Projects and Scenes
  • Project Properties
  • Project Maintenance
  • Project and Scene Data
  • Scene Management
  • Scene Statistics
  • Scene Tree
  • Performance Statistics
How Tos
  • Designer How to Index
  • How to Run Ventuz
  • How to Work with Designer
  • Ventuz Designer Drag&Drop Workflow
  • How to work with Shadows
  • How to Build Content for Multiple Screens
  • How to Use Emoijs
  • How to Build a Template
  • How To Build a Custom Scene Transition
  • How to Use the Color Difference Keyer
  • How To Enable HDR Video Output
  • How To Work with the HDR Layer
  • How Create Lens Flares and Bloom
  • How to Create Visuals Loader Node
  • How to Remote Control with a Phone
  • How to use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to work with 3D Reference Layers
  • How to create a Firework Particle System
  • How to use DDS with new Block Compression modes
  • How To use Stream Out
  • How to use the Substance Integration
  • How To Integrate Unreal
  • How To Integrate Notch
  • How To use the Vertex Integration
  • How To Control and Customize Ventuz
  • How to use the Companion with Director
  • How to build Previs scenes with Designer
  • How to migrate from Ventuz 6 to Ventuz 7
Reference
  • Available Nodes
  • Animation Nodes
  • Material&Color Nodes
  • Data Nodes
  • E2E Nodes
  • Geometry Nodes
  • Interaction Nodes
  • IO Nodes
  • Layers
  • Light Nodes
  • Logic Nodes
  • Previs Nodes
  • Render Option Nodes
  • Slides Nodes
  • Sound Nodes
  • Text Nodes
  • Texture Nodes
  • VR Nodes
  • World Nodes
  • Summary Shortcuts
  • Layer Editor Shortcuts
  • Hierarchy Editor Shortcuts
  • Content Editor Shortcuts
  • Animation Editor Shortcuts
  • Director Shortcuts

Ventuz Director

  • Index
  • What's New in Director
  • Introduction
  • Environment
  • Show
  • User Interface
  • Assets
  • Taking Action
  • Property Editor
  • Shot Box
  • Project Data
  • Pages
  • Playlist
  • Transitions
  • Timeline
  • Content References
  • Topology
  • Channels
  • Macros
  • Designing Templates
  • Scene Transitions
  • Plug-Ins
  • Shortcuts
  • Command Line Options
  • Application Settings
  • Glossary
  • GPI Configuration

Ventuz Runtime & Configuration

  • Runtime Index
  • Configuration Editor
  • Machine Configuration
  • Device Configuration
  • Project and Show Management
  • Live Runtime Control
  • Web Configuration Editor
  • Render Setup Editor
  • Warping and Soft-Edging Editor
  • Multi Screen and Output Setup
  • How to migrate from Ventuz 6 to Ventuz 7
  • Machine Clustering
  • Supported Hardware
  • Director Mode
  • How to Configure Audio
  • How to Use Live Options
  • How To Play Out On Multiple Screens
  • How To Render on a Machine Cluster
  • How to Use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to Setup Spout with Ventuz
  • How to Use Newtek NDI
  • How to Use a Mixed Frame Rate Cluster
  • How to Use Tracking

Multi Output & Display Setups

Introduction
  • Introduction to Compositions, Screens and Outputs
  • Explanation of Compositions, Screens and Outputs
  • Machine Clustering
  • Support for multiple GPU's
Editors
  • Configuration Editor
  • Device Configuration
  • Render Setup Editor
  • Warping and Soft-Edging Editor
  • Designer Stage Editor
Workflows
  • How to Build Content for Multiple Screens
  • How To Play Out On Multiple Outputs
  • How To Render on a Machine Cluster
  • How to build Previs scenes with Designer

How To

Designer
  • Designer How to Index
  • How to Run Ventuz
  • How to Work with Designer
  • Ventuz Designer Drag&Drop Workflow
  • How to work with Shadows
  • How to Build Content for Multiple Screens
  • How to Use Emoijs
  • How to Build a Template
  • How To Build a Custom Scene Transition
  • How to Use the Color Difference Keyer
  • How To Work with the HDR Layer
  • How To Enable HDR video output
  • How Create Lens Flares and Bloom
  • How to Create Visuals Loader Node
  • How to Remote Control with a Phone
  • How to use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to work with 3D Reference Layers
  • How to create a Firework Particle System
  • How to use DDS with new Block Compression modes
  • How to use the Substance Integration
  • How To Integrate Unreal
  • How To Integrate Notch
  • How To build and playback Ventuz Content in Vertex
Runtime & Configuration
  • Runtime How Tos Index
  • How to Configure Audio
  • How to Use Live Options
  • How To Play Out On Multiple Screens
  • How To Render on a Machine Cluster
  • How to use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to setup Spout with Ventuz
  • How to use Newtek NDI
  • How to use a Mixed Frame Rate Cluster
  • How to use Tracking
  • How To Integrate Unreal
  • How To Integrate Notch
  • How To build and playback Ventuz Content in Vertex
  • Multi Screen and Output Setup
  • How To Enable HDR video output
Director
  • How To Control Multiple Graphics Independently From Each Other
  • How to use the Companion with Director

Ventuz Node Reference

Available Nodes Overview
  • All Designer Nodes
ANIMATION
  • Mover
  • Alternator
  • Simple Control
  • Timeline Control
  • Anmation Rig
  • Keyframe Animation
  • Animation Group
COLOR/MATERIAL
  • Alpha
  • Fog
  • Ground Fog
  • Sky Box
  • Color to RGBA
  • HSLA to Color
  • RGBA to Color
  • Color Transformer
  • HLSL Shader
  • Color
  • Material
  • Color Picker
  • Substance Material
DATA
  • Database
  • Excel
  • JSON
  • RSS Feed
  • Resource Linker
  • Text File
  • XML
E2E
  • E2E Axis
  • E2E Data
  • E2E Control
  • E2E Layer
  • E2E Provider
  • E2E Node Overview
GEOMETRY
  • Rectangle
  • Rounded Rectangle
  • Gradient Rectangle
  • Overlay Rectangle
  • Cube
  • Circle
  • Sphere
  • Cylinder
  • Cone
  • Torus
  • Chart
  • Random Points
  • Mesh Loader
  • Geometry Import (Live)
  • Volume
  • Get Bounding Box
  • Arrow
  • Particle System
  • Path Renderer
  • Geometry Renderer
INTERACTION
  • Interaction Rect
  • Touch Button
  • Touch Excluder
  • Touch Marker
  • Touch Paint
  • Touch Pattern
  • Touch Proxy
  • Touch Ripples
  • Touch Transformations
  • Web Browser
  • Touch Teleport
  • Touch Simulator
INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O)
  • GPI
  • Joystick
  • Keyboard
  • MIDI
  • Mouse
  • Network
  • Open Sound Control
  • Serial
  • Timecode
  • DMX
  • HTTP
  • RamDiskWriter
LAYER
  • 3D Layers
  • 3D Layer Reference
  • Composition Layer
  • 2D Layers
  • PSD Import Layer
  • E2E Layer
  • Mixer Layer
  • Others
LIGHT
  • Light Sources
LOGIC
  • Array Processing
  • Convert To Text
  • Cluster Synchronization
  • Counter
  • Data Portals
  • Date Time
  • Directory
  • Dispatcher
  • Enumeration
  • Expressions
  • Invert
  • Log
  • Loop Breaker
  • Math Effects
  • Matrix Operations
  • Scene Event
  • Script
  • String Operations
  • System ID
  • Render Setup Relation
  • Text Splitter
  • Timer
  • Toggle
  • Transition Info
  • URL
  • Value Switch
  • Value Buffer
  • Variables
  • Visual Indexer
PREVISUALIZATION
  • Introduction to Previs
  • Previs Screen
  • Previs Canvas
  • Compositon List
  • Rendersetup Objects
  • Composition Projector
  • Previs Screen Render Options
RENDER OPTIONS
  • Alpha Blending
  • Color Write
  • Alpha Testing
  • Clip Plane
  • Filter
  • Mask
  • Mirror
  • Effect
  • Render Cube Map
  • Draw Modes
  • Stencil
  • ZTesting
SOUND
  • Audio Clip
  • Sound
  • Volume Control
  • Audio Analysis
SLIDES
  • Slide Manager
  • Slide
  • Slide Port
  • Pivot
TEXT
  • Text Effects
  • Text Layouts
  • Text Rendering
TEXTURE
  • Background
  • Hatch
  • Image
  • Texture
  • SVG Loader
  • Gradient Texture
  • Live Video
  • Movie Stream
  • Movie Frame
  • Movie Clip
  • Texture Loader
  • Snapshot
  • Snapshot Framebuffer
  • Texture Saver
  • Video Source Selector
  • VIO Input
  • Spout Receiver
  • NDI Receiver
  • Substance Loader
  • QR Code
VR/AR
  • Tracked Devices
  • Draw Tracked Devices
WORLD
  • Axis
  • Billboard
  • GetWorld
  • SetWorld
  • Arrange
  • Ticker
  • Layout
  • Group
  • World Z Sort
  • YesNo
  • Switch
  • Spread
  • Filter Pass
  • Set Pass
  • Hierarchy Container
  • Scene Port
  • Content Container
  • Template Port
  • Container Info
  • Camera
  • Paths
  • Cloner

Advanced and Development

  • Advanced and Development Index
  • Command Line Options
  • Ventuz IP Ports
  • Ventuz Machine Service
  • TUIO
  • .NET Scripting
  • HLSL Shader Programming
  • Ventuz API and SDK
  • Ventuz Extension API
  • Ventuz VIO API
  • Ventuz File Format (VFF)
  • Ventuz Stream Out API
  • Lens Calibration File for FreeD
  • E2E Node Overview
  • Unreal Integration
  • Notch Integration
Remoting
  • Remoting Index
  • Remoting Overview
  • How To Control and Customize Ventuz
  • Remoting 4
  • Remoting 4 via Websockets
  • Remoting 4 via HTTP
  • Director Remoting
  • Deprecated Remoting

Misc

  • Presets
« Previous: Render Cube Map
» Index «
Next: Stencil »

Draw Mode

Table of Contents

  1. Render Modes
    1. Render Solid
    2. Render Sprites
    3. Render Lines
    4. Render Wireframe
    5. Render Path

Render Sprites Renders Sprites at the location of each vertex instead of the polygons of a geometry.
Render Lines Renders customizable Lines along the edges of the polygons of a geometry.
Render Wireframe Renders Lines along the edges of the polygons of a geometry with low performance impact.
Render Path Renders a list of vertices as a single customizable Path.
Render Solid Renders the geometry as Solid Polygons.

The Render Mode Nodes are Aliases of the Material Node. They change they way the following objects will be rendered. The Material Node has other options that are documented on the respective pages (see table below for more information).

Material User Interface

General

The Material Node controls the appearance of the surface of each rendered Object placed as a child in the Hierarchy. It consists of several options that can be added to its list of properties to overwrite the according options. The options are available under Material Node's Tabs that are represented by the button bar on top of the Material Definition in the Property Editor.

Generally these tabs exist:

Standard

Alpha Options

affects the overall transparency

Lighting Model

changes how light affects the color of a surface

Material Stages

adds textures and material stages that change the shading

Shadow Options

Shadow Options

changes the shadow related behavior

Drawing Style

Draw Mode

applies a draw mode for geometries (lines, solid, sprites etc.)

Blending

Color Write

changes the write mode to specified color channels

Alpha Blending

adjusts the blending of geometries onto the background

Testing

Alpha Testing

applies a custom test against the object's alpha

ZBuffer

defines a custom occlusion test for the geometry

To show the options of a tab simply  click on the according button. You can insert options by clicking on the Property Group's entry and choosing the wanted options from the dropdown.

All options that you do not adjust in a Material node are inherited by the Default Material or the Material node in front.

Icon and Decoration

In general the Icon rendering can be changed by switching between Sphere, Quad and Torus at the bottom of the Properties Editor or via .

Based on the Property Groups that are used inside a Material Node the Icon may change.

Rendered Preview

if only Property Group's in the Standard or Shadow Options tab are used.

Rendered Preview with light blue decoration

if Property Group's in the Standard or Shadow Options tab are used together with any other Option like a certain Draw Mode or a certain Blending

Dedicated Option Icon

every Material Option has it's own dedicated Icon, that is shown whenever no other Property Group in any other tab is used.

Extraction

Material Definition

A Material node is a Hierarchy Node by nature. But it can serve as a Material Provider as well. This is useful whenever you want to use the same material in different locations of your hierarchy or once you have Hierarchy Nodes that need more materials than one applied to it (e.g. the Particle System Node). The below image shows both a Material Node and an extracted Material Node Provider together with a receiving Material Node.

You can either place the Material node in the Content Editor to create an unbound Material Provider node. Or you can use the extract button on any node that hosts a Material Definition to extract it to a provider that can be re-used on other nodes.

Material Options

Since a Material consists of several options sometimes you want to extract some of them to a seperate Hierarchy Node. This way you can apply single Material Options to other parts of the Hierarchy Tree when already added to the Material. Just use the extract buttons next to the Material Options.

Render Modes

Ventuz provides several Modes to render objects to the screen. This can be mainly understood as how the renderer interprets the polygons of a geometry. The following render modes are available.

Render Solid

Render Solid is the default draw mode and lets you draw all polygon's faces. You can change the Culling of the front- and backfaces.

Render Sprites

The Render Sprites mode will render a texture at the position of each vertex of an object.

The vertices can be Culled - either Frontfaces, Backfaces or no faces can be excluded from the rendering.

The uniform Scale and the Aspect can be changed with the according properties as well. The aspect is calculated with the formula 2x. So if you need an Aspect of 16:9 you need to type 0.83 (which is log2(16/9)). If you need an aspect of 9:16 it simply is -0.83.

The Scaling flag changes whether or not the sprites should scale with the distance to the camera. If ZNearFadeoutEnable is enabled the sprites fade out the alpha if they come near the camera, the threshold can be set with ZNearFadeout.

PointSpriteUV defines to which UV set the UV's generated for the sprites are applied. Setting it to UV1 for example allows to use a texture for the sprites but still use another texture on the geometry's original UV0 set.

If wanted, the Sprites can be Offset in X and Y position on the screen from the original vertex' position. If EnableRotation is turned on the Rotation changes the 2D rotation of the sprites.

You can change the direction of Billboarding:

  • Toward Camera: Align the sprites towards the camera.
  • Along Forward: Rotate along the Forward Vector of the particle.
  • Along Speed: Rotate along the Velocity of the particle. Normally this only exists after a simulation.
  • Along Direction: Use Billboard Reference to create a Rotation Vector to which the particles will be aligned.
  • Toward Position: Rotate towards a Position given through the Billboard Reference.
  • Toward Axis: Rotates towards an Axis defined in the Billboard Reference
  • Normals Toward Position: Only changes the normals' directions towards a position but leaves the rotation of the particle as it is.
  • Normals Toward Axis: Only changes the normals' directions towards an axis but leaves the rotation of the particle as it is.
  • Invert: Can be used to invert the resulting vector. Only applies to Toward Position and Toward Axis billboarding.
  • Update Normal: When directions are changed in any modifiers in the particle system the sprites normals need to be updated during the rendering. Turn this off if you want to keep the original direction of the particles' normals.

The Billboard Reference uses a Transformation property group. Alignment enables you to choose which axes are locked to the billboarding. The VR option locks the X and Y axes and is useful for cameras that have an animated roll.

Render Lines

The Render Lines mode will render customizable lines along the edges of the polygons.

This mode has a set of Culling modes available to remove certain edges from the rendering:

  • Show All: Renders all visible edges.
  • Show Rim: Only renders the edges that appear to be the outermost ones from the current perspective.
  • Show Front: Only renders the edges that are facing towards the camera.
  • Show Back: Only renders the edges that are facing away from the camera.
  • Show Front+Rim, Back+Rim, Front+Back: Combinations of the according modes.
  • Remove Flat Tesselation: Removes all edges between two faces with the same normals.

Width changes the thickness of the lines while WidthMode changes how the width is affected by perspective. Unperspective keeps the lines at a constant width on the screen. Perspective Unscaled applies the perspective distortion to the lines but does not use the scaling from the Axis Nodes in front. Perspective Scaled does both - regarding the perspective and all axes. Planar Optimization can be used to prevent the distortion from the projection - that is appearing in high aspect ratio or high field of view setups. This is useful for planar objects rendered as lines but should be disabled for 3-dimensional objects in order to keep its spatial impression.

If in Unperspective node the rendered lines will drop shadows as if they were in Perspective Scaled mode, because shadows will not work with Unperspective lines.

LengthRel and LengthAbs change the length of the lines. Relative length is the percentage to the distance between the endpoints of the edge. Absolute will add an additional length independent from this distance. LengthFromWidth changes the length proportionally to the lines' width.

CapLength will add a cap of the given length with UVs to the end of each line.

The UVs used by the Material Stages can be changed with the UV0 and UV1 dropdowns:

  • Original uses the UV set of the geometry.
  • Relative applies UVs stretched from start to end of each line.
  • Absolute applies UVs of same proportions to each line, so the UVs are not stretched on lines of different length.
  • Stretched will use the center pixels of the texture along the line and applies its two halves to the caps of the lines.

Example:

Relative UVs
Each edge shows three dashes. The center edge is longer, so the dashes are longer.
Absolute UVs
Each dash is the same size. The center edge is longer, so there are more dashes.

Render Wireframe

The Render Wireframe mode renders the edges of the polygon using a fill mode defined by DirectX11. This results in a very fast line rendering with very little options. You can only turn Culling for front- and backfaces on and change the Antialiasing of the lines.

Render Path

The Render Path mode is a specific mode that makes sense with a list of vertices only - instead of a set of polygons. See the Path Renderer for more details on how to render paths. Using the Path mode instead of the Lines mode will result in a much smoother result, as the renderer can assume that not more than two edges are ending at one vertex - thus applying Caps to the edges' ends is not necessary anymore. You can turn on wireframe rendering in the Renderer's options to see the exact difference between both modes.

Width changes the thickness of the path while WidthMode changes how the width is affected by perspective. Unperspective keeps the lines at a constant width on the screen. Perspective Unscaled applies the perspective distortion to the lines but does not use the scaling from the Axis Nodes in front. Perspective Scaled does both - regarding the perspective and all axes. Planar Optimization can be used to prevent the distortion from the projection - that is appearing in high aspect ratio or high field of view setups. This is useful for planar objects rendered as lines but should be disabled for 3-dimensional objects in order to keep its spatial impression.

If in Unperspective node the rendered paths will drop shadows as if they were in Perspective Scaled mode, because shadows will not work with Unperspective paths.

The UVs that should be used by the Material Stages can be changed with the UV0 and UV1 dropdowns: Original uses the UV set of the geometry, Relative applies UVs from the beginning of the path to the end and along its width.

See also:
  • Material Node

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» Index «
Next: Stencil »
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