Menu
: EXTRACE : Start/UpdateShortcut
: NoneThis command starts the ExTrace program, or begins the update of the ExTrace display if you have made changes to the model or the image parameters.
As you start an ExTrace session, all the scene definitions (lights, camera and materials) are automatically loaded for the image. Any changes you make with the SCENE menu will immediately update the ExTrace session too. You'll see the changes when you next render the image.
A parameter window appears requesting the following information:
After the parameters are given, the ExTrace window appears. It should be moved to a suitable location on the screen and fixed by clicking the left mouse button.
ExTrace will first render the picture with low pixel resolution, and progressively refine it to the final resolution. The resolutions may be controlled with the EXTRACEÞPreferences parameters.
You may always interrupt the on-screen computation with the Stop button in the ExTrace window. Alternatively, the keys ESC or Ctrl-C do the same thing when the mouse cursor is positioned in the ExTrace window. The scene specifications, objects, textures, etc., may then be further changed, and he rendering re-started by issuing command Start/Update again.
After the final resolution has been reached, if it greater than zero, the ExTrace function button Divide is enabled to further refine the image.
On machines that don’t support 24-bit color, you are additionally given the options Optimize and Dither. These functions optimize the image for display in 8-bit colors. Which of the two methods gives the best result depends on the particular image. When the picture is computed as a background process, such optimizations are performed automatically for the best possible 8-bit image quality.