The Universal camera is a full-featured camera with many features that mimic real world photographic lenses. There are five camera type options: 

  • Thin lens
  • Orthographic
  • Fisheye
  • Equirectangular
  • Cubmap


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Universal Camera


LC Cameras Universal Fig01 3dsmax 2021


Figure 1: Universal Camera Parameters


Universal Lens Parameters

Target mode - Adds a target item to help orient your light direction.

Target Dist. - Set the target a specific distance from the source.

Camera Mode - Options to set your camera type.

Viewing Angle

  • Field Of View - The horizontal field-of-view, measured in degrees.
  • Lens Shift X - The lens shift on X, as a factor of the image width.
  • Lens Shift Y – The lens shift on Y, as a factor of the image height.
  • Lens Shift Z – The lens shift on Z, as a factor of the image depth.
  • Pixel Aspect Ratio - The pixels' X:Y aspect ratio.

Fisheye

  • Field Of View - The camera's field of view, measured in degrees.
  • Fisheye Type - Choose between covering the lens circle in the sensor, or covering the whole sensor.
  • Hard Vignette - Renders the lens (Circular fisheye only).
  • Fisheye Projection - The projection function used for the fisheye.

Panoramic

  • Horizontal Field of View - The horizontal field of view, in degrees. This sets the X-coordinate for the camera's horizontal field of view in the scene. This is ignored when cube mapping is used.
  • Vertical Field of View - The vertical field of view, in degrees. This sets the Y-coordinate for the camera's vertical field of view in the scene. This is ignored when cube mapping is used.
  • Cubemap Layout - Determines the configuration for laying out the cubemap.
  • Equi-angular Cubemap - Activates an equi-angular cubemap projection.

Distortion

  • Use Distortion Texture - Enables the distortion texture.
  • Distortion Texture - The Distortion texture input.
  • Spherical Distortion - The amount of spherical distortion.
  • Barrel - Straight lines appear curved.
  • Barrel (Corners) - Straight lines appear curved, affecting corners.

Aberration

  • Spherical - Rays hitting the edge of the lens focus closer to the lens.
  • Coma - Rays hitting the lens edge have a larger field of view.
  • Astigmatism - Sagittal and tangential rays focus at different distances from the lens.
  • Field Curvature - The curvature of the plane in focus.

Clipping

  • Near Clip Depth - Distance from the camera to the nearest clipping plane, measured in meters.
  • Far Clip Depth - Distance from the camera to the farthest clipping plane, measured in meters.

Depth of Field 

  • Focus Type
    • Auto-Focus - Keeps the focus on the closest visible surface at the center of the image. This setting is on by default.
    • Focal Depth - Define the focus distance.
    • Target Focus - Use the camera target to define focus.
  • Focal Depth - The depth of the plane in focus, measured in meters. If you are having trouble seeing a result when you adjust this setting, double-check to make sure that Auto-Focus is enabled. Auto-Focus overrides the Focal Depth setting.
  • Use F-Stop And F-Stop - Controls the field-of-view and depth-of-field, similar to a real-world camera. The F-Stop value is the aperture-to-focal-length ratio.
  • Aperture - The radius of the camera's lens opening, measured in centimeters. Low values have a wide depth-of-field, where everything is in focus. High values have a shallow depth-of-field, where objects in the foreground and background will be out of focus.
  • Aperture Aspect Ratio - This allows users to squash and stretch the depth-of-field disc.
  • Aperture Shape - Controls the shape of the aperture.
  • Aperture Edge - Modifies the relative distribution of rays across the aperture, impacting the hardness of the edges of bokeh shapes. Higher values increase the contrast towards the edge. Values between 0 and 1 simulate an apodization filter.
  • Aperture Blade Count - The number of blades forming the iris diaphragm.
  • Aperture Rotation - The rotation of the aperture shape in degrees.
  • Aperture Roundness - The roundness of the blades forming the iris diaphragm.
  • Central Obstruction - Simulates the obstruction from the secondary mirror of a catadioptric system. This option is only enabled on circular apertures.
  • Notch Position - Determines the position of the notch on the blades.
  • Notch Scale - Scale of the notch.
  • Custom Aperture - Sets the custom aperture opacity map. The projection type must be set to OSL Delayed UV.

Optical Vignetting

  • Optical Vignetting Distance - The distance between the lens and the opening of the lens barrel.
  • Optical Vignetting Scale - The scale of the opening of the lens barrel relative to the aperture.

Split-Focus Diopter

  • Enable - Enables the split-focus diopter.
  • Diopter Focal Depth - Depth of the plane in focus measured in meters.
  • Diopter Rotation - Rotation of the split-focus diopter in degrees.
  • Diopter Translation - Translation of the split-focus diopter.
  • Diopter Boundary Width - Width of the boundary between the two fields.
  • Diopter Boundary Falloff - Controls how quickly the Split-Focus diopter focal depth blends into the main focal depth.
  • Show Diopter Guide - Displays guide lines, toggling this option on or off will restart the render.

Position

  • Keep Upright - The panoramic camera always orients towards the horizon, and the up-vector stays in its default vertical direction (0, 1, 0).

Stereo

Stereo - This specifies the output rendered in stereo.

  • Left - Renders the image for the left eye.
  • Right - Renders the image for the right eye.
  • Side-By-Side - Renders the scene as a pair of two-dimensional images.
  • Anaglyphic - Makes the render viewable with red/blue 3D glasses.
  • Over-Under - The pair of two-dimensional images is placed one above the other for special viewers.

Mode - When you choose a Stereo mode, you can choose Off-Axis or Parallel stereo camera projections.

Stereo Distance - The distance between the left and the right eye in Stereo mode, measured in meters. The stereo distance is also referred to the IPD (Inter Pupillary Distance), and is often exchanged with terms like stereo interocular distance or eye distance. For realistic depth, use values between 0.055 and 0.075.

Stereo Distance Falloff - Controls how fast the eye distance reduces towards the poles. This reduces eye strain at the poles when the panorama is viewed through a head-mounted display. A value of 1 reduces the eye distance from equator to the poles, which creates a relaxed viewing experience. This also causes flat surfaces to appear curved. A value smaller than 1 keeps the eye distance constant for a larger latitude range above and below the horizon, but it rapidly reduces the eye distance near the poles. This keeps a flat surface, but causes more eye strain near the poles, which you can reduce again by setting the pano cutoff latitude to a value less than 90 degrees.

Left/Right Stereo Filter - The left and right filter colors adjust the colors for the anaglyphic stereo effect in the render.