Surfaces for the Cineware engine consist of a set of channels, listed on the left side of the dialog box. Each channel represents one surface property (e.g. Luminance, Fog, Environment, Normal, Alpha, Glow, Transparency, Specular, Displacement).
Many surfaces can be simulated using just a few channels. So don’t be intimidated by the numerous channels and their wide range of parameters. Generally speaking, all everyday surfaces can be created using just a handful of these channels.
Color (Cineware Surface Channel)
Surface color
Diffusion (Cineware Surface Channel)
Irregularities in surface color (works by brightening and darkening the color channel)
Luminance (Cineware Surface Channel)
Luminescent color (light-independent color)
Transparency (Cineware Surface Channel)
Transparency (including refraction index)
Reflectance (Cineware Surface Channel)
Ability to reflect other objects. Also controls Specular and Color effects.
Environment (Cineware Surface Channel)
Environment reflection (simulates reflection)
Fog (Cineware Surface Channel)
Fog effect
Bump (Cineware Surface Channel)
Virtual bumps on a surface
Normal (Cineware Surface Channel)
Virtual surface irregularity that is lit realistically
Alpha (Cineware Surface Channel)
Localized texture invisibility
Glow (Cineware Surface Channel)
Glow Halo around an object
Displacement (Cineware Surface Channel)
Realistic bumps on a surface
Grass (Cineware Surface Channel)
Create realistic-looking grass as a surface
Illumination (Cineware Surface Channel)
Use the Illumination channel in Surfaces to enable or disable the generation and reception of Global Illumination (GI) to and from this surface, and to control the strength of the caustics effects.