Managing the Visualization Quality

You can control the visualization quality by specifying the wide range of custom parameters available in the Visual Quality Manager feature.

  1. From the View section of the action bar, click Visual Quality .
  2. In the Visual Quality dialog box, select one of the following.
    • Static Mode. There is no interaction with objects.
    • Dynamic Mode. There is an interaction with objects through a handle, rotation, zoom, or an animation.
  3. From the list, select one of the following options.
    OptionDescription
    Low Provides the lowest quality.
    Medium Provides an average quality.
    High Provides a better quality with a minor impact on performance.
    Ultra Provides the best visualization results with a medium impact on performance.
    Recommended Specifies the default quality preset after you run the command according to the graphics card you are using to provide the best quality without compromising performance.
    Custom Defines the customized parameters.
  4. Optional: Click one of the following.
    OptionDescription
    Applies the same quality value to both static and dynamic visualizations.
    Removes the link between static and dynamic visualizations.
  5. From the Static mode or Dynamic mode list, select Custom and click Advanced Settings to specify the custom quality parameters.

    You can specify the custom parameters for either Static mode or Dynamic mode or, both at the same time.

  6. Specify the following options.
    OptionDescription
    Pixel Culling

    Defines the details of objects you want to hide or display.

    Specifying a high value removes the details of your display.

    You can specify the value in the field or use the slider.
    Transparency Specifies the transparency values.
    Shadows Specifies the shadow values ranging from Low, Medium, High, Ultra, to Custom. You can specify the custom parameters.
    Reflections Specifies the amount of a mirror effect you want to add to an object.You can specify the custom parameters for reflection.
    Material Specifies the material visualization quality. You can specify the custom parameters.
  7. Optional: Specify the Transparency parameters.
    OptionDescription
    Alpha Blending Objects are sorted according to their distance from the viewer. This gives better results.
    Weighted Average Improves the quality of transparent rendering, and renders mixed opaque/transparent geometry. This rendering technique also improves the visualization quality of edges. Edges in the back are less visible than edges in the front, and their colors are blended with the geometry. This technique applies to 3D geometry only and has no impact on other transparent geometries.
  8. Optional: Specify the Shadow custom parameters.
    OptionDescription
    Allow Ground Shadows Adds an object shadow on a ground.
    Allow Inter-object Shadows Adds a shadow between objects.
    Allow Transparent object Shadows Adds a shadow between the transparent objects.
    Filtering to use Uses one of the following methods to filter the shadow map.
    • PCF-Optimized (Percentage Closer Filtering): Uses multiple shadow map details than a fixed number of details to improve visual quality to maintain high performance
    • ESM (Exponential Shadow Map): Uses an exponential function to filter shadow maps to prevent antialiasing.
    • Poisson: Uses the Poisson distribution patterns to reduce the number of shadow map details.
    Filtering quality Defines the quality level to apply during filtering the shadow map
  9. Optional: Specify the Reflection custom parameters.
    OptionDescription
    Allow Reflections on ground Adds a mirror effect on the ground.
    Allow Ambient Occlusion Displays the number of shaded regions impacted by the amount of light reduction because the surrounding objects. When an object is surrounded by other objects, it appears darker because the amount of light reaches toward it is less.
    Depth Flickering Reduction Improves the visual quality of overlapping models.This option may have no effect on small structures, and overlapping surfaces with high curvature.
  10. Optional: Specify the Material custom parameters.
    OptionDescription
    Metallic Flakes Quality Specifies the quality of a thin and reflecting particles that appear at an interactive frame rate. The frame rate defines the number of images displayed per second (FPS). The higher the FPS, the better the result. Virtual Reality scenarios, for example, require a very high FPS. The following values are available for this option.
    • Low: No individual flake or particle is visible.
    • Medium: Less number of flakes are visible.
    • High: Most of the flakes are visible.
    • Ultra: All the flakes are visible.
    Default Material Quality Control the rendering quality of geometries without using dedicated materials.
    Downsampling Factor Enhances the rendering performance by applying a downsampling factor to the image displayed on screen. The image is generated with a lower resolution to have better performance but with a lower visual quality. This option is especially relevant on laptops with a low-end graphics card. In this case, defining a high factor provides a good quality/performance ratio.
  11. Click OK.