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it to some broadcast medium, only to see that the whole left side of the animation is being cut off in the final screening, can be discouraging. If you rely on the size of the active viewport to show the edges of the final output, you could be way off. Using the Safe Frames feature, you can display some guides within the viewport that show where the content must be to avoid such problems.

FIGURE 2.23

Other interfaces such as the Track view, Schematic view, and Scene Explorer can be opened within a viewport.

The Safe Frames panel of the Viewport Configuration dialog box lets you define several safe frame options, as shown in Figure 2.24, including the following:

• Live Area: Marks the area that will be rendered, shown as yellow lines. If a background image is added to the viewport and the Match Rendering Output option is selected, then the background image will fit within the Live Area.

• Action Safe: The area ensured to be visible in the final rendered file, marked with light blue lines; objects outside this area will be at the edge of the monitor and could be distorted.

• Title Safe: The area where the title can safely appear without distortion or bleeding, marked with orange lines.

• User Safe: The output area defined by the user, marked with magenta lines.

• 12-Field Grid: Displays a grid in the viewport, marked with a pink grid.

FIGURE 2.24

The Safe Frames panel lets you specify areas to render.

For each type of safe frame, you can set the percent reduction by entering values in the Horizontal, Vertical, or Both fields. The 12-Field Grid option offers 4×3 and 12×9 aspect ratios.

The Show Safe Frames in Active View option displays the Safe Frame borders in the active viewport. You can quickly enable or disable Safe Frames by right-clicking the viewport Point-of-View label and choosing Show Safe Frame in the pop-up menu (or you can use the Shift+F keyboard shortcut).

Figure 2.25 shows an elongated Perspective viewport with all the safe frame guides enabled. The Safe Frames show that the top and bottom of my dinosaur will be cut off when rendered.

Setting Display Performance

Within the Display Performance panel, shown in Figure 2.26, are a couple of simple settings. The Improve Quality Progressively setting causes a rough approximation of the viewport update to be rendered immediately, and gradually the details are added to improve the displayed results as time progresses. This progressive update doesn't slow you down but provides more detail if there is time to add it before the next update.

New Feature

Because of the speed of newer processors and improvements in the rendering algorithms, the complex Adaptive Degradation system found in previous versions has been replaced with this simplified version that is new to 3ds Max 2012. •

FIGURE 2.25

Safe frames provide guides that help you see when the scene objects are out of bounds.

Note

If the Nitrous display driver is not enabled, then the Adaptive Degradation panel is available in the Viewport Configuration dialog box.

You also can set the display resolution used on procedural maps. Higher resolution values have more detail, and lower resolution maps render and are updated more quickly.

You can enable Progressive Display option using the Views⇒Progressive Display menu command (or by pressing the O key). You also can turn Adaptive Degradation on and off with a button located at the bottom of the interface between the Prompt Bar and the Add Time Tag. The Progressive Display button looks like a simple cube.

FIGURE 2.26

The Display Performance panel offers only a few simple settings.

Tip

Right-clicking the Progressive Display button opens the Display Performance panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box. •

Defining regions

The Regions panel enables you to define regions and focus your rendering energies on a smaller area. Complex scenes can take considerable time and machine power to render. Sometimes, you want to test render only a portion of a viewport to check material assignment, texture map placement, or lighting.