• Sprite-Tab Basics
• Working with multiple cameras within one sprite
• About anti-aliasing

Sprite-Tab Basics

In the top part of the 3DPI window (1) all sprites are listed, that use a 3D member, which means a member that is either of type #shockwave3d or of type #text, if the displayMode property of the text is set to #mode3D.

Select one sprite by clicking on its name, and the details of the selected sprite will be displayed in the bottom part of the 3DPI window (2).

 

Probably the most needed sprite informations are on the one hand the properties and functions to use more cameras within one single sprite, and on the other hand the properties regarding anti-aliasing, a feature which has been added in Director 8.5.1.

Working with multiple cameras within one sprite

 
If you want to display different views of one 3d scene, it is not necessary to use multiple sprites, but instead you can use multiple cameras within one sprite.

 

First create new cameras in the Camera-Tab, and then you can use them for your sprite: click on the Button "add..." beside "cameraCount()" and select one of the new created cameras within the dialog that opens.
Each time adding a camera, cameraCount() will increase.

What also needs to be done is to set the rect for each camera correctly:
First select a number for 'index' to choose which of the added cameras you want to change, and then change its rect by typing new values into the fields.

The rects regarding to the above displayed example are looking like the following:

To change more details of a camera than only the rect, click on the Camera-Button on the left. The 3DPI switches to the Camera-Tab, selects the corresponding camera and displays all its informations.

About anti-aliasing

The anti-aliasing feature has been added in the Director 8.5.1 update, and offers two properties: #antialiasingSupported and #antialiasingEnabled.

AntialiasingSupported reveals if anti-aliasing can be used, which depends on the current renderer. If AntialiasingSupported reports "0", which means it is not supported, switch the current renderer to software, DirectX 5.2 or DirectX 7.0, which quickly can be done in the Renderer-Tab.

If antialiasingSupported reports "1", which means it is supported, anti-aliasing can be switched on by the antialiasingEnabled property.

If running the 3DPI with Director 8.5 and not Director 8.5.1, the properties regarding anti-aliasing are greyed out and inactive.