Shape Surface
 | Shape Surface | This node provides a remotely deformable geometric surface. |
The Shape Surface, unlike the other geometric primitives, is not designed to be part of the content of scene. It should be used solely for the purpose of building output setups if rendering to more than one display/projector. For more information, see Screen shaping.
A shape surface is usually positioned by inserting a Viewport Node before it, thus assigning the portion of the screen that is mapped to a specific output device through that shape. By deactivating the Overlay property, the Shape Surface will behave like a standard Rectangle and can be positioned with an Axis Node.
The geometry of the shape surface cannot be adjusted by properties but is rather tweaked by using the separate Remote Shaping Tool.
AlphaMode provides fast selection of some pre-defined alpha blend modes used to render the geometry. There are five different presets:
| Value | Description | Source Factor | Dest Factor | Function |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Setup | The Shape Surface does not change any alpha blending setting. The current settings of any previous Alpha Blending Node will be used. | - | - | - |
| Alpha Blended (default) | The default alpha blending is used. Texture applied on the Shape Surface uses their alpha to perform normal transparency. | Source Alpha | Inverse Source Alpha | Add |
| Additve | All pixels are added to the background. This mode is useful for effects such as glow and lens flares. | One | One | Add |
| Overwrite | All pixels overwrite the background. Pixels with alpha value 0 may not be drawn due to the Alpha Testing. | One | Zero | Add |
| Premultiplied Alpha | Useful if the texture applied on the Shape Surface contains premultiplied alpha. This mode is often used if the texture is a Render Target | One | Inverse Source Alpha | Add |
Setting the AlphaRelation property to Relative enables any previous Alpha, Color or Material node to affect the alpha of the Shape Surface.
The two Texture modes Flat and Overlap define how the UV coordinates of the shape are generated.
- The Overlap mode keeps the UV values in the range from 0.0 to 1.0 at the inner rectangle of the shape, where the edges uses values lower than 0.0 resp. higher than 1.0. Use this mode in conjunction with the Strip Mapper Node to create shapes that are overlapping each other (multi projector setups).
- The mode Flat keeps the UV values from 0.0 to 1.0 across the entire shape (like the normal Rectangle does). The 2D Mapping Node can be used to position the texture properly.
The recommended AlphaMode for Screen Shaping is Overwrite - no blending at all. The AlphaRelation should be set to Absolute.
For explanations on the MeshTester property, see Hit Test and Mouse Over.