Sets preferences for viewport display and behavior.
The Viewports preferences panel contains the following options:
Use Dual Planes: Uses the front/back plane system when redrawing the viewport. The selected object is manipulated in the front plane and is redrawn, while other objects remain on the back plane and are not redrawn. This default setting provides the fastest redraws under normal circumstances. Clear it to improve redraw speed if you are rotating the whole scene or moving a camera through the scene (situations in which the whole viewport needs to be redrawn anyway). If your assigned display driver doesn’t support dual planes, this option is not available.
Zoom About Mouse Point: By default, viewports zoom about the center of the view. When this box is selected, viewports zoom about the point where you click the mouse.
Draw Links as Lines: Displays the hierarchical links between parent and child objects as plain lines, rather than as shapes.
Backface Cull on Object Creation: Determines whether faces with normals pointing away from view are displayed. When selected, you see through the wireframe to the back faces. This option applies to Wireframe viewport displays only. In most cases, you’ll want this item selected. However, if you’re modeling with NURBS surfaces, which consist of single-sided planes, it’s easier to view them from all angles when backface culling is turned off.
This check box affects only the created objects, and you can reverse the effect on each object by changing the Backface Cull check box in the Object Properties dialog for that object. You might clear Backface Cull on Object Creation before creating your NURBS, and then select it again when finished. You can globally change the display of backface culling in the viewports by selecting Force 2-Sided on the Rendering Method page of the Viewport Configuration dialog.
Attenuate Lights: Turns the display of attenuation effects on or off from start to end in the interactive viewport renderer. If this box is clear (the default), attenuated lights behave as though there was no attenuation.
Mask Background to Safe Region: By default, the viewport area outside the outermost safe frame displays the contents of the viewport. When this box is selected, that area is left blank.
Update Background While Playing: Turns on the updating of bitmaps in the viewport background when you play an animation. You need this capability to check your action against a 2D rotoscoped background, even if your animation plays at 1fps. When this box is selected, an IFL, AVI, or FLC file updates on each frame when you click the play button. Turn off the real-time switch in the Time Configuration dialog to use this feature.
Filter Environment Backgrounds: Affects the background displayed in the viewport only when the Use Environment Background check box is selected in the Background Image dialog. When Filter Environment Backgrounds is selected, the environment background is filtered in the viewport, resulting in an antialiased image. When clear, the background image is not filtered, resulting in an aliased, pixelated image.
Filtering slows down the recalculation of the viewport background image about 30 to 40 percent. Unless you really need that smooth display, it’s best to leave the option clear.
This option has no effect on the rendered background image, and has no effect on viewport backgrounds when Use Environment Background is turned off.
Low Res Environment Background: Reduces the size of the environment background map by half, and then magnifies to the size needed for the viewport. This results in a chunkier, pixelated appearance, but speeds the rendering in the viewport four times (since the width and the height of the original image are halved). Unless you need fine detail in your environment background, it’s best to leave this item selected.
Grid Nudge Distance: Sets the nudge distance for the arrow keys, which you can use to nudge selected objects into position.
Non Scaling Object Size: Sets the display size of cameras, lights, and other nonscaling objects. 1 is the default size.
Controls the way selected objects can be moved with the mouse in a non-orthographic view (such as Perspective).
Intersection: Shoots a ray from the mouse point into the screen. This makes it easy to move objects, but as you move toward the horizon, the object is moving great distances.
Projection: Projects the motion of the mouse onto the plane. This ensures that there are no singularities at the horizon, and that motion is always smooth and stable. However, it can become difficult to move objects when the plane is not parallel to the screen.
Persp Sensitivity: Sets mouse sensitivity for projection transforms.
Rotation Increment: Specifies the amount of rotation generated by moving the mouse 1 pixel. Lower this value for smaller angular rotations than the default .5 degrees. The lower this value, the more mouse movement is needed to rotate objects.
Ghosting Frames: Specifies the number of ghost images that appear before and after the current frame when you choose Show Ghosting from the Views menu. If you display ghosts both before and after the current frame, the total number of ghosts is twice this number.
Display Nth Frame: Specifies the number of frames between the appearance of each ghost. The smaller this number, the closer together the ghost images appear.
Ghost Before Current Frame: Displays only ghost images that occur before the current frame. This makes the ghosts trail the object.
Ghost After Current Frame: Displays only ghost images that occur after the current frame.
Ghost Before and After: Displays ghosts both before and after the current frame.
Ghost in Wireframe: Displays ghosts in black wireframe in shaded viewports. When clear, the ghosts appear as shaded objects, using the same colors as the wireframe ghosts.
Show Frame Numbers: Displays a frame number in the upper-left corner of each frame.
Pan/Zoom: If you have a three-button mouse, sets the middle mouse button to pan the viewport. If you have a Microsoft Intellimouse, you can also roll the middle wheel to zoom the viewport.
Note: By default, the Intellimouse slows the speed of the mouse when you hold down the wheel button. You can increase the mouse speed in the Mouse Properties dialog in the Control Panel. Choose the Wheel tab, click the Settings button in the Wheel Button area, and turn the slider up to Fast.
Stroke: For a three-button mouse, allows you to assign command shortcuts to stroke patterns applied by dragging with the middle mouse button.
Currently Installed Driver: Displays the name of the currently installed driver.
Choose Driver: Displays the 3D Studio MAX Driver Setup dialog. Use this dialog to select a different software display driver, or to switch drivers if you install a hardware accelerator card.
Configure Driver: Displays the Configure Driver dialog, where you can change the driver options for your currently selected driver.