Autodesk 12812-051462-9011 User Guide 3 - Page 97

Comparison of Standard and Hardware Displays The ability to render materials in the viewports using a hardware-based display mode lets you view and adjust certain parameters interactively without having to generate a final render, saving time when editing materials. The hardware display does not fully support all material parameters, however. When considering which display mode to use for a material, take these points into consideration: Software Display Hardware Display Supports all materials Supports only Standard and Arch & Design materials Supports Diffuse maps only Supports Diffuse, Specular, and Bump maps, as well as Anisotropy and BRDF settings No reflection Reflects the sky shader on page 5181 Calculates specularity on per-face basis Calculates specularity on per-pixel basis Faster, no special hardware requirements Slower but more accurate, requires a DirectX9.0c-compliant video card Renders faceted display modes correctly Renders faceted display modes as smoothed The following image, taken from the 3ds Max viewport, shows two spheres to which are applied two copies of an Arch & Design material with identical settings, including texture-mapped diffuse color and bump mapping, a high reflectivity level, and a Checker map applied to the Anisotropy channel. The scene also includes a Daylight system with mr Sun and Sky, with the Environment Map set to mr Physical Sky. The only difference is that the material on the left-hand sphere is set to Show Standard Map in Viewport, while the material on the right-hand sphere is set to Show Hardware Map in Viewport. The latter shows the bump mapping, reflection of the sky, and the checkered anisotropy in the specular highlight. The spheres render identically, and look similar to the right-hand sphere. 5352 | Chapter 19 Material Editor, Materials, and Maps