Creating Rendering Types
Creating Rendering Types
To create a new rendering type, select Rendering Types in the tree view (top-most item) and click on the + button. The tool prompts the user to select the character to which the rendering type will be associated, among those that were added in the Assets tab.
Assets Manager - Creating a new rendering type
Once the character is selected, the user is prompted to enter a name for the rendering type, after which the new rendering type is displayed in the Rendering Types view. Each rendering type has a unique id.
Rendering Types use the assets created in the Assets tab. To define which assets will be used by a rendering type, the user must add Assets Groups to it. To do so, select the rendering type in the Rendering Types view, click on the + button and then select Assets Group in the combo box prompt.
Assets Manager - Adding assets groups
After clicking OK, the tool prompts to select the Assets Groups to add to the Rendering Type.
After selecting the asset groups, they are displayed along with their mesh assets in the Rendering Types tab. A slider and an integer field allow the user to change the weights of the mesh assets in each group. The weight of an asset in an asset group defines the amount of the asset that will be distributed across the entities to which the rendering type is assigned, compared to the other assets in the same group.
If an assets group is not present on a Rendering Type, its assets will not be used.
Assets Manager - Adding assets groups (2)
As stated before, Rendering Types can be organized in a tree hierarchy, which means that a rendering type can have one or several child rendering types. To add a child rendering type, select an existing rendering type and click on the + button, and then select the Child Rendering Type in the combo box prompt.
Assets Manager - Adding a child rendering type
Child rendering types inherit the assets of their parents (thus they are based on the same character defined in the Assets tab) and can redefine asset groups. This allows to group together common assets into one rendering type and then only redefine specific assets on child rendering types. It is important to note that asset weights will be computed across the whole rendering type hierarchy, while without child rendering types the asset weights are computed independently for each rendering type.
Assigning Rendering Types
To use Rendering Types in a Crowd scene, you must assign them to crowd entity types. To assign a Rendering Type, select it and click on the Assign… button. You can then select the Crowd entity types in which to assign the Rendering Type from a list. To unassign a rendering type from an entity type, unselect it from this list.
Assets Manager - Assigning a rendering type to entity types
Each Entity Type must have a rendering type in order for the associated entities to be exported to FBX files or to be rendered.
After assigning a Rendering Type to an Entity Type, its id is displayed in the Entity Type node in the Attribute Editor. By default this attribute equals -1, which means that no Rendering Type is assigned.
IMPORTANT: When assigning a Rendering Type to an Entity Type, please make sure that the skeleton and mapping file of the Entity Type (.gsk and .gskm) were created from the same Maya character, otherwise skinning artifacts can occur.