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Skin Texture Property: height

Defines the height of surface points.

Excepted Data Source1 component image
Data Range0 to 1
Default Value0.5
Affected ModulesGraphic
Linked Propertiesheight.scale, height.offset

Description

The height texture property defines the height of the surface. This allows Graphic Modules to improve lighting by taking small scale elevations on the surface into account.

This is also a special texture property similar to the normal map one but this time the height of a surface relative to the mesh surface is stored. This height can be used for different purpose depending on the graphic module used. One usage is to derive a normal map from the height difference. Another usage is to dynamically increase the detail level of a mesh. The new vertices are then offset using this height. Terrain meshes can also use this height information to provide LODing (level of detail reduction over distance).

A value of 0.5 indicates no surface height alteration. Values below 0.5 indicate a dent in a surface while values above 0.5 indicate a bump in a surface. The strength and offset of the height alteration can be set using the height.scale and height.offset property.

The source is typically an 8 bit image with 1 color components inside the range from 0 to 1. 0 represents a point located at the lowest point underneath the surface. 0.5 represents a point on the surface. 1 represents a point located at the highest point above the surface. Using high definition range images values beyond can be used as well.

The default value for this texture property is 0.5 .

Examples

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