Scene light and panorama

Options for light source and environment and reflection maps for 3D viewports may be configured using the Scene Light and Panorama tool . You can access the tool the following ways:

• Click the Scene Light and Panorama tool in the toolbar.
• Click Edit > Edit Scene Light and Panorama in the main menu.

Scene light and panorama settings

Light

The Light parameters control how objects are lit in the Viewport:

Sun position source	Switches between "Time and Month" and "Direct Solar Entry". For "Time and Month" to work, the Scene Coordinate System needs to be set correctly.
Time	Time of Sun Position.
Time Zone	Time Zone of Sun Position.
Month	Month of Sun Position.
Solar elevation angle	Altitude of the sun, the angle between the horizon and the center of the sun's disc.
Solar azimuth angle	Azimuth angle of the sun.
Solar intensity	Scene light intensity.
Ambient intensity	Scene light ambient intensity.
Shadow attenuation	Attenuation of shadows (blend to black).
Ambient occlusion attenuation	Attenuation of screen space ambient occlusion (blend to black).
Shadow quality	Switches between "Low", "Medium", "High", and "Interactive".
Radius mode	Switches between "Manual" and "Interactive".
Ambient occlusion radius	Radius in meters of screen space ambient occlusion samples.
Ambient occlusion samples	Number of screen space ambient occlusion samples, or "Interactive".

Interactive modes

The "Interactive" modes are designed to deliver great visual quality without the need to manually adjust parameters.

• When Shadow quality or Ambient occlusion samples are set to Interactive, the best visual quality is used when the camera stands still, while the quality is reduced based on performance during camera moves.
• When setting Radius mode to interactive, the ambient occlusion radius is automatically adjusted for best visual quality in the center region of the viewport. If you want to tweak this, set the mode to Manual.

Ambient occlusion

CityEngine ambient occlusion uses screen space ambient occlusion, a special real-time rendering technique that approximates ambient light occlusion. Ambient occlusion is a shading method used in 3D computer graphics which helps add realism by taking into account attenuation of light due to occlusion. Ambient occlusion attempts to approximate the way light radiates in real life and is especially well suited for outdoor scenes.

Solid shading without ambient occlusion

Ambient occlusion enabled

Low ambient occlusion radius

High ambient occlusion radius

Panorama

The panorama settings contain the background skydome shown in the 3D viewports:

Environment Map	Image to be used as environment map. The environment map is used to texture the sky in your scene.
Reflection Map	Image to be used as reflection map. The reflection map is used on reflections on generated models that have reflection enabled in their material settings.
Visible	Show or hide the panorama.

The directory ce.lib/maps/panoramas contains a selection of panorama maps.