Migration to the new help center
We are currently migrating to a new help center. Old documentation articles will remain here until they are updated in the new version. However, keep in mind that this migration goes along a completely new ShapeDiver platform, a new version of the viewer and an updated Grasshopper plugin. Therefore, the information contained in the present article might contain outdated information. If you have questions about the topic addressed in the present article but cannot find a version of it in the new help center, don't hesitate to let us know on the forum so we can work on an update shortly.

Background settings

The two first settings of this section define the appearance of the viewer background when the environment map is not visible. If the environment is visible, these parameters don't have any effect.

Background color

Define the color used for the background of the viewer window (default is white).

Background alpha

Define the transparency used for the background of the viewer window (default is 1 - opaque).

Environment settings

The rest of the parameters of this section control the visibility and properties of the environment used in the scene.

Show environment

This setting toggles the visibility of the environment map in the scene. The environment is always used for rendering, even if this setting is OFF. In order to disable the environment, see next setting.

Choose environment

Choose between a number of presets included in the ShapeDiver viewer. In order to completely disable the environment, pick the preset called none.

Environment resolution

This settings controls the resolution of the chosen environment preset. Four sizes are always available: 256x256px, 512x512px, 1024x1024px, 2048x2048px

This setting only affects presets. Custom environments (next paragraph) are only available in the resolution of the uploaded files.

Custom environment

In order to add custom environment maps, you need to provide cube maps. These cube maps can be obtained with an HDRI image here. The converter will convert the HDRI into a series of six images representing a cube map:

Those images need to be stored in an online location that can be accessed by the viewer. In particular:

• The folder where the images are stored needs to be publicly accessible.
• Make sure the CORS configuration of the location allows access. An example of CORS configuration would be:

<CORSConfiguration>
<CORSRule>
 <AllowedOrigin>https://app.shapediver.com</AllowedOrigin>
 <AllowedMethod>GET</AllowedMethod>
 <MaxAgeSeconds>3600</MaxAgeSeconds>
 <AllowedHeader>access-control-allow-origin</AllowedHeader>
</CORSRule>
</CORSConfiguration>

File storage
We recommend using a service such as Amazon S3 to store your external geometry. Most online storage services don't provide the flexibility to define MIME types and CORS configurations. Read more about it here.

Once the files are online and configured correctly, the environment map can be set by entering the url of the folder in the text box of this setting.