Materials & Lighting

Contains controls that determine the way that light and materials interact during radiosity solving.

These settings determine which materials and surfaces are considered in the radiosity solution. Open surfaces have a “front” side that is determined by the surface normal.

Material Receives Light

Sets whether surfaces receive (absorb) light from the radiosity shots. Materials can be selected based on whether or not they have the Global Illumination setting turned on in their material definition.

• Always
— All surfaces in the design can receive light.

• If global illumination on
— An individual surface receives light if Global Illumination is turned on in its material definition.

• If global illumination off
— An individual surface receives light if Global Illumination is turned off in its material definition.

Receiver Reflects Light

Sets whether surfaces reflect light. Materials can be selected based on whether they have the Global Illumination setting turned on in their material definition.

• Always
— All surfaces in the design can reflect light.

• If global illumination on
— An individual surface reflects light if Global Illumination is turned on in its material definition.

• If global illumination off
— An individual surface reflects light if Global Illumination is turned off in its material definition.

Illuminate Both Sides of Surfaces

If on, both sides of surfaces are illuminated in the radiosity solution. If off, the side with positive surface normals (normals pointing outward from the surface) is illuminated. Surface normal direction can be changed with the MicroStation's Change Normal Direction tool.

Often, it is not necessary to illuminate both sides of a surface. For example, a view showing the inside of a room, constructed of shapes or surfaces, would not need the outsides of the walls to be considered. Turning off Illuminate Both Sides of Surfaces can reduce the solution time considerably. This setting applies to surface design elements only; solids automatically are illuminated only on their outside surfaces. Transparent surfaces always have both sides illuminated (despite the setting).

Ray Trace Direct Illumination

If on, the ray tracer is used to compute shadows from light sources, but not from reflected light. This means that very high quality images can be obtained using much larger element sizes, and therefore much less memory.