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2. Click in the viewport Shading label, and select the Lighting and Shadows⇒Shadows option. Then select the Configure option from the same menu to access the Visual Style & Appearance panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box.

Caution

If you don't see the Visual Style & Appearance panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box, then you probably have a different display driver enabled. •

Select the Enable Ambient Occlusion setting with the Radius of 10 and an Intensity/Fade value of 1. Select the Point Lights/Soft-Edged Shadows option in the Lighting and Shadows Quality slider. Then click the OK button.

3. Click the Select and Move toolbar button, and drag the light object about the scene.

The shadows under the foot bones are automatically updated as the light is moved, as shown in Figure 2.15. Notice how the shadows are soft.

FIGURE 2.15

Lights and shadows are updated in real time when the light is moved about the scene.

Another option available in the Visual Style & Appearance panel is the Auto Display Selected Lights. This option also is available in the Views⇒Viewport Lighting and Shadows menu. It is helpful when you're placing and aiming lights in the scene. It causes the selected light to be displayed in the shaded viewport automatically. The Views⇒Viewport Lighting and Shadows menu also includes options for locking and unlocking selected lights.

Locating mesh problems with xView

When modeling or importing mesh objects, a number of problems with the geometry could cause rendering artifacts such as flipped normals, overlapping faces, and open edges. Locating these problem areas can be tricky, requiring multiple renders to get it right. Within the viewports is a powerful analysis feature for locating a number of specific problem areas. This feature is called xView, and you can access it from the Views menu.

The xView analysis tool can locate and highlight the following anomalies:

• Show Statistics (7): Displays the number of Polys, Tris, Edges, Verts, and FPS for the entire scene and for the selected object.

• Face Orientation: Highlights the back side of the faces in the current selection to quickly identify faces with flipped normals.

• Overlapping Faces: Highlights any faces that are stacked on top of each other, which can cause render problems.

• Open Edges: Identifies unwanted holes in the geometry.

• Multiple Edges: Checks for edges that are stacked on each other. Each edge should be connected to only two faces.

• Isolated Vertices: Highlights vertices that aren't connected to anything. These vertices just take up space.

• Overlapping Vertices: Flags vertices that are within a given tolerance.

• T-Vertices: Highlights vertices where three edges meet. This can terminate an edge loop.

• Missing UVW Coordinates: Shows any faces that have no UVW coordinates for applying textures.

• Flipped UVW Faces: Highlights any faces that are flipped with opposite-pointing normals.

• Overlapping UVW Faces: Displays any faces where the textures are overlapping.

Whichever option is selected is listed at the bottom of the viewport in green along with the number of offending subobjects, such as Isolated Vertices: 12 Vertices. The menu also includes options to Select the Results, which provides to a way to quickly select and delete problem subobjects like isolated vertices. If the selected option has a setting such as the Tolerance of overlapping edges, you can select the Configure option to set this setting or click the Click Here to Configure text at the bottom of the viewport. There are also menu options to See Through the model, Auto Update the results, and display the results at the top of the viewport.

Tip

If any xView data is displayed in the viewport, you can click it to select another data option. This lets you quickly view all the potential problems with the current object. •

Configuring the Viewports

If the Viewport Navigation Controls help define what you see, then the Viewport