Now you can try a test render: from the bottom right set of tools, click and hold Render Current Object, and select Render Scene from the list. After the scene has rendered (figure 3), youll notice a
Now you can try a test render: from the bottom right set of tools, click and hold Render Current Object, and select Render Scene from the list. After the scene has rendered (figure 3), youll notice a few things: it doesnt look especially realistic, since there are no shadows and no reflections; theres a drab grey background; and the sphere doesnt look very spherical. The unspherical sphere is caused by the fact that the underlying object mesh is too coarse. The SE version of trueSpace 3 doesnt allow you to set object resolution before creation, but theres a workaround: with the sphere selected, click the Smooth Quad Divide icon at the right-hand end of the main toolbar. This interpolates the points on the sphere and makes the mesh finer. To produce any shadows in the scene, select each of the three scene lights in turn and then click Toggle Shadow Casting By Current Light in the pop-up properties box.
The other problems can be solved by manipulating the renderer properties. Notice that the Render Scene icon is one that has a red right-hand as well as a blue left-hand flash: this indicates that a single right-click will produce extended options. Right-click it now and the Render Options window appears. Set the background colour to black by clicking the grey Block icon and dragging the RGB sliders down to zero. Check the Raytrace box, and also the Antialias box. Now click the Render Scene button again and your scene should appear quite pretty.