Real Time Rendering
(RT1, MRT) - P1, (RTR, MRR) - P2

General Issues

Real Time Visualization for new Advanced Materials
New Architecture and design shaders are both globally compatible in real time and ray tracing, but some of them are not yet well tuned for real time applications:
  • Car paint: The complex effects with sparkles introduces performance slow down in real time visualization.
  • Frosted glass: The frosted effect is not visualized in real time. It is displayed as a polished glass.
Graphics Performance Enhancement for V5 Products
Graphics performance of V5 (GPU) is enhanced thanks to the support of the OpenGL feature, Vertex Buffer Object (VBO).

VBO increases the performance for large model models and advanced materials based on CgFX shaders.

This graphics optimization is available only on Windows 32-bit and 64-bit (XP, VISTA), by exporting the following environment variable in your V5 install:
set CAT_VBO_ALLOWED=1

It is strongly recommended to switch to this optimization on the latest hardware graphics having at least 512 MB of video memory like:

  • NVIDIA Quadro FX4500, Quadro FX 5500, Quadro FX4600, Quadro FX 5600
  • ATI FireGL V7300, FireGL V7350, FireGL V5600, FireGL V57600, FireGL V8600, FireGL V8650

Note that for ATI, it is recommended to install the latest ATI FireGL 8.44 driver series.

Please refer to the DS certified configuration website to review the configuration.

Transparency
Transparency often generates visualization artifacts where transparent objects behind another transparent object, looks like the display is in front. This artifact is also true for user made CgFX shader and stickers.

Another transparency issue is when a regular material with transparency is completed by a user made CgFX shader, the material gets the shader's effect but keeps the transparency of the default definition. Be sure that the material's transparency is set to 0 prior to switching to shader mode.  

ISL Shaders
In the current release, the creation and visualization of .isl format files and visualization is no longer supported. If necessary, .isl files can be easily converted to .cgfx format. A template is provided in the install path under startup/materials/shaders.
CgFx Shaders
The following restrictions apply to current release and Cg1.5 version from NVIDIA:
  • Refer to Hardware Certifications for detailed information on the supported operating systems and graphic configurations.
  • Lights effects: If you use an FX material next to a standard material, lights effects will be smoothed on the FX side and aliased on the other side.
  • Using shaders may have a significant impact on performance and visualization due to the complexity of the shaders and the number of lights in the CATIA session.
  • External shader files written by the user are under the user's responsibility. This means that the user is responsible for coding, debugging and upgrading the language for those external shader files.
  • With an external CgFX shader file, compatibility with PH1/PHS/PSO is not guaranteed.
  • If an interactive environment is used, this environment has no effect on a material with an external shader.
  • For an external shader the variable int NeedTandB=1; must be initialized to compute tangents and binormals in the CgFx shader file. This variable is not an environment variable.
  • External shaders (.fx, .cgfx) are not supported by VB and Materials APIs.

Cg1.5 library from NVIDIA are now delivered with Version 5 and automatically installed on a Windows platform. The activation remains a user choice in Tools > Options.

Material Update when Instantiating a PowerCopy
CATIA does not update a material during a PowerCopy instantiation under the following circumstances:
  • You have a CATPart document containing a material that is assigned to a knowledge parameter and this material is applied on a surface.
  • You instantiate a PowerCopy of this CATPart document into a second CATPart document that contains a knowledge parameter.

CATIA does not update the material in the instantiated copy of the CATPart with the value of the material from the knowledge parameter of the second CATPart.

 

Workaround: Set the following variable: MAT_REFRESH_AFTER_POWERCOPY_WITH_KWE_PARAMETER=1
Revision for Material Library
When you create a new revision of material library (.CATMaterial file) and save it in ENOVIA V5 VPM, the links between the part (or product) document and this library cannot be automatically synchronized.
This means that you can neither use the Replace with latest version contextual menu (available in ENOVIA V5 VPM Impact By dialog box) nor the Synchronize button (in the Edit > Links dialog box).

You have to reroute manually these links by reapplying the material from the new revision of the material library.
Recommendation: Do not use revision for material libraries documents.

Creating a Material Library: Naming Convention
Each material library and materials must have a unique name.
Settings for Default Material Library
When you use a library saved in the ENOVIA VPLM ENOVIAVPM database as the default material library (defined via the Tools > Options > Infrastructure > Material Editor), you may loose the path if you are disconnected from the database and try to edit the path of the default library.

In this case you need to:

  1. Exit your session.
  2. Reconnect to the database.
  3. Start a session.
  4. Edit your new material library path.

If you do not follow this procedure and edit the setting when disconnected, the wrong path is generated in the settings. If the wrong path is generated, you must erase your MaterialOptionSettings.CATSettings and then restart the session.

Material Links
To ensure visualization compatibility and scalability on all kind of hardware, both openGL definition and CgFX shader definition have to co-exist in a single material. As a consequence, all the links to diffuse textures, reflection maps and shaders are stored in the material data model even when not displayed. This particular implementation is noticeable when exchanging materials to another user with V5 Send To or V6 Import: all the associated textures are exported.

On this version this effect is brought to the fore when using Cancel button in the material's property dialog box. When using Cancel all the properties are reset but the textures links are kept in the data model.

Exchanging V5 data without using Send To can lead to missing materials or textures and then broken links. To remove all broken material links* from CATPart or CATProduct documents, use the CATDUA V5 tool (either in batch or interactive mode) and set the following variable:

CAT_CLEAN_BROKEN_MATLINKS=True

Those broken links are detected and removed by the CATDUA as MAT_6 errors.

 *broken material links are links to CATMaterial documents that have been lost or moved from their original location.

3D XML
Materials:
  • Each reflective material can have its own reflection map. Such reflexion maps are not exported with V3.0 of 3D XML file. This problem is solved in V4.0. 
  • If the material has no associated reflection map, it is the session reflection map (the default one) that is used for visualization. This default reflection map is a CATIA user setting and is not exported in 3D XML. Since the player can have another default reflection map, the visualization of a reflective material can therefore be different between CATIA and player.
  • 3DXML coming from V6 export may have a slightly different display in V5. In the particular case of a V6 Core Material applied inside a V6 part, this material will not be displayed.
  • New architecture&design shaders and built in CarPaint are not yet saved in 3D XML file.
  • 3D materials (specific procedural materials) are saved in 3D XML file without any texture information except for materials applied onto parts/bodies/surfaces and saved in a 3D XML file in static tessellation format.
  • specularExponent in 3D XML is not the one usually used in OpenGL. To obtain the equivalence, you must first set the OpenGL value between 0 and 1 and apply the following formula:
    1-(openGL specularExponent)
    3
    (see latest 3D XML User’s Guide for more explanations).
  • The general recommendation is to use xml tessellation format to export materials in 3D XML. When the 3D XML file is only for visualization purpose (no need to edit the materials) or when your model contains a large number of materials applied only once in the product structure, it can be interesting to use a tessellation mode to export a tessellated format. In this particular case the resulting file may be smaller.

Open Issues

DocChooser
You cannot access image files stored in the ENOVIA vault when using the Browse window.

This limitation will be fixed in a forthcoming release.

3D XML

Rendering Scenes: Cameras, lights, stickers, environments, and turntables cannot be saved in 3D XML in this version.

This limitation will be fixed in a forthcoming release.
Shaders and Sectionings
Shader materials are not compliant with the DMU Sectioning command.
This issue will be fixed in a forthcoming release
.
Object to Object Shadows
When opening a new window while lights are projecting real time shadows on objects, the shadows are not displayed in the new window.
This limitation will be fixed in a forthcoming release
.

Documentation

Enhancement
New screenshots are up-to-date but in some existing documentation sections, they have to be updated in a forthcoming SP.
Object to Object Shadows
All screenshots and some explanations are not yet up-to-date. They will be modified on the forthcoming SP.