The 3D Scene Properties dialog is used to configure the various attributes of a 3D scene, such as background colour, grid settings, etc.
General Tab
Summary - Text description of the scene (optional).
Thumbnail - A thumbnail to be used to represent the scene. This can be one of the auto-generated location_... thumbnails, or any other image that you have added to the scene's resources.
Size Tab
Document Size - This is the default pixel size of the scene. In a 3D scene, this is largely irrelevant as the scene can be displayed at any resolution without any resizing, however the aspect ratio of the display may still be useful if you want to know where the edges of the screen will lie. You can click any of the preset size buttons (e.g. 1024x768) to set the width and height automatically.
Display Distance Range - Objects are not drawn if they are nearer than the 'Near ' value to the camera, nor if they are further away than the 'Far' value from the camera. You will get the best results if you set these to accurately represent the scale of your scene.
Background Tab
Background Type - Select the type of background that you want to use for the scene.
none - the background is transparent.
solid - the background is a solid colour. Click the 'Colour' panel to change the background colour.
image - the background is a bitmap. Click 'Browse' to select the file to use.
cubemap - the background is a cube map. This requires a special DDS (DirectX Surface) or 6 image JPEG strip file to represent the 6 inside faces of the cube.
Ambient Light - This is the light that will be applied to all objects in the scene regardless of any other light settings. Typical colours are black (no ambient light), dark grey (small amount of ambient light) or white (all objects lit at full brightness).
Background Sound - This sound will be played in a continuous loop in the background while this scene is displayed.
Grid Tab
The grid can be used to help easily align objects when they are moved or rotated.
Snap to grid - Enables the grid and makes objects snap to even amounts of the grid Spacing values.
Snap to edges - Objects 'stick' to the edges of other objects if they are within the Range .
Snap rotations - When objects are rotated, the amount they can be rotated by in any direction is snapped to the Rotation Snap Angle .
Origin X, Y, Z - The centre of the snap grid - defaults to 0,0,0.
Spacing X, Y, Z - Object coordinates will snap to the nearest spacing value above or below their current position.
Rotation Snap - The Angle defines the smallest unit of rotation that an object can be rotated by.
Effects Tab
Effects can be added to a scene in the same way as they are added to objects. Please see Effects for more information.