About Shadows and Environment Mapping
For 3D views, you can add shadows — direct shadows and floor shadows — and environment mapping, which is an image-based lighting technique for approximating the appearance of a reflective surface using a texture image. You can add environment mapping to the model geometry and, optionally, also as a background for the view, using a so-called skybox, providing an illusion of distant surroundings. The COMSOL Multiphysics software includes two environment maps (images) that you can use for the environment mapping. You can choose the environment map and turn on the skybox from the Graphics toolbar and in the 3D View node’s Settings window. In the View node’s Settings window, you can also control the rotation and quality of the environment map, and for a skybox you can also adjust the blurriness, blending, and projection. See View (3D) for more information about the settings for environment mapping. You can access the following settings from the Scene Light drop-down menu in the Graphics window toolbar (see Visual Effects in the 3D View node’s settings for more information):
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Toggle Ambient Occlusion () on and off.
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Toggle Direct Shadows () and Floor Shadows () on and off.
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Toggle Gamma Correction () on and off.
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Choose an environment map (), Indoor Environment or Outdoor Environment, or choose No Environment for no environment map.
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Turn the Environment Reflections () on and off.
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Toggle Show Skybox () on and off. You can use environment reflections without displaying the skybox in the Graphics window background.
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Click Rotate Environment () to rotate the environment map.
The last three settings are only available when one of the two environment maps are selected.
Changing the environment map and the environment settings only affect the rendering when you use the OpenGL renderer and are not available when using software rendering.