Display Tab

The Display tab controls how hair appears in the Blender viewport. It handles visualization, colors, shading, and performance settings for real-time preview.

What It Does

The Display tab provides:

  • Viewport display - Control strand visibility and thickness
  • Color modes - Various ways to color hair
  • Shading options - Solid, Material Preview, Rendered modes
  • Performance settings - GPU acceleration and LOD
  • Debug tools - Normals, bounds, statistics

Think of it as your control center for how hair looks while you're working on it.

Viewport Display

Display %

  • Percentage of strands to show in viewport
  • Range: 1-100%, default 100%
  • Lower values for faster viewport performance
  • Affects viewport only, not final render
  • Example: 50% shows half the strands

Thickness

  • Viewport strand thickness in pixels
  • Range: 0.1-10.0, default 1.0
  • Purely visual - doesn't affect actual hair width
  • Increase for better visibility
  • Decrease for more accurate preview

Steps

  • Subdivision steps for smoother curves
  • Range: 1-10, default 3
  • Higher = smoother curves, slower viewport
  • Lower = faster, more angular
  • Doesn't affect final render quality

Color Modes

Material

  • Use uniform hair color
  • Shows base color set below
  • Fast and simple
  • Good for basic preview

Random

  • Random color per strand
  • Useful for seeing individual strands
  • Good for debugging clumping
  • Each strand gets unique color

Clump ID

  • Color by clump assignment
  • Shows which strands belong to which clump
  • Essential for debugging Clumping modifier
  • Each clump gets unique color

Length

  • Color by strand length
  • Short strands = one color, long = another
  • Useful for checking length variation
  • Gradient from short to long

Root to Tip

  • Gradient from root color to tip color
  • Shows strand direction
  • Good for checking flow
  • Uses base color and tip color

UV Coordinates

  • Color by UV position on scalp
  • Shows UV layout
  • Useful for texture mapping
  • Red = U axis, Green = V axis

Base Colors

Base Color Button

  • Click to open color picker
  • Sets primary hair color
  • Used in Material and Root to Tip modes
  • Saved with scene

Tip Color Button

  • Click to open color picker
  • Sets tip color for gradients
  • Used in Root to Tip mode
  • Creates natural color variation

Color Presets

  • Quick access to common hair colors:
  • Brown - Natural brown hair
  • Black - Deep black hair
  • Blonde - Golden blonde
  • Red - Auburn/red hair
  • Gray - Silver gray
  • White - Platinum white
  • Click any preset to apply instantly

Apply Clump Colors Button

  • Manually apply clump ID coloring
  • Same as Clump ID color mode
  • Useful for debugging

Visibility

Show Guides

  • Toggle guide curve visibility
  • Enabled by default
  • Guides shown in viewport only
  • Never rendered

Show Strands

  • Toggle generated strand visibility
  • Enabled by default
  • Strands shown in viewport and render

Show Root Points

  • Highlight strand root positions
  • Disabled by default
  • Useful for checking distribution
  • Shows dots at strand origins

Show Clump Centers

  • Show clump center points
  • Disabled by default
  • Useful for debugging clumping
  • Shows where clump centers are

Shading

Shading Mode Buttons

  • Solid - Fast, flat colors
  • Material - Shows specular highlights
  • Rendered - Full quality preview

Use Preview Shader

  • Enable custom hair preview shader
  • Adds Kajiya-Kay specular highlights
  • Works in Solid mode
  • Disabled by default

Specular

  • Hair specular highlight intensity
  • Range: 0.0-1.0, default 0.5
  • Only with Preview Shader enabled
  • Higher = shinier hair

Roughness

  • Hair surface roughness
  • Range: 0.0-1.0, default 0.4
  • Only with Preview Shader enabled
  • Lower = shinier, higher = matte

Shader Thickness

  • Strand thickness multiplier for shader
  • Range: 0.5-4.0, default 1.0
  • Only with Preview Shader enabled
  • Visual only, doesn't affect geometry

Antialiasing

  • Smooth hair edges in shader
  • Enabled by default
  • Only with Preview Shader enabled
  • Reduces jagged edges

Performance

GPU Info

  • Shows detected GPU
  • Indicates if CUDA is available
  • Updates automatically

Strand Count

  • Shows current strand count
  • Updates when hair regenerates
  • Useful for performance monitoring

GPU Acceleration (Vectorized)

  • Use GPU-accelerated numpy operations
  • Enabled by default
  • 5-10x speedup for modifiers
  • Automatically falls back to CPU if unavailable

Max Strands

  • Maximum strands to generate
  • Range: 1,000-500,000, default 50,000
  • Caps total strand count
  • Prevents accidental performance issues
  • Example: Density map may request 100k, but this caps at 50k

LOD Distance

  • Distance at which to reduce detail
  • Range: 1.0-100.0, default 20.0
  • Farther objects get fewer strands
  • Not yet fully implemented

GPU Instancing

  • Use GPU instancing for rendering
  • Enabled by default
  • Better performance for many strands
  • Recommended to keep enabled

Debug

Debug Mode

  • Enable debug information
  • Shows additional data in viewport
  • Useful for troubleshooting

Show Normals

  • Display strand normal vectors
  • Shows direction of each strand
  • Useful for checking orientation

Show Bounds

  • Display bounding box
  • Shows hair system extents
  • Useful for checking size

Stats Label

  • Shows strand, CV, and guide counts
  • Updates with "Refresh Stats" button
  • Format: "Strands: X | CVs: Y | Guides: Z"

Refresh Stats Button

  • Manually update statistics
  • Counts current hair data
  • Use after regenerating hair

Common Workflows

Basic Viewport Setup

  1. Set Display % to 100%
  2. Set Thickness to 1.0
  3. Choose Material color mode
  4. Pick a base color preset
  5. Enable Show Guides and Show Strands

Performance Optimization

  1. Reduce Display % to 50% or less
  2. Reduce Thickness to 0.5
  3. Reduce Steps to 2
  4. Disable Show Guides if not needed
  5. Enable GPU Acceleration

Debugging Clumping

  1. Set color mode to Clump ID
  2. Enable Show Clump Centers
  3. Each clump shows unique color
  4. Verify clump assignments

Checking Distribution

  1. Enable Show Root Points
  2. Zoom in on scalp surface
  3. Verify even distribution
  4. Check for gaps or clusters

Realistic Preview

  1. Switch to Material Preview mode
  2. Enable Use Preview Shader
  3. Set Specular to 0.5
  4. Set Roughness to 0.4
  5. Enable Antialiasing

Color Mode Tips

For Styling:

  • Use Material mode with natural color
  • Easier to see overall shape
  • Less distracting than random colors

For Debugging:

  • Use Clump ID to check clumping
  • Use Random to see individual strands
  • Use Length to check variation

For Texture Work:

  • Use UV Coordinates to check UV layout
  • Helps plan texture painting
  • Shows UV seams

For Direction:

  • Use Root to Tip gradient
  • Shows flow direction
  • Helps verify Flow Direction modifier

Performance Tips

For Smooth Viewport:

  • Keep Display % at 50% or less during styling
  • Increase to 100% for final preview
  • Reduce Thickness for dense hair
  • Lower Steps to 2 for faster redraw

For Dense Hair (50k+ strands):

  • Display % at 25-50%
  • GPU Acceleration enabled
  • GPU Instancing enabled
  • Consider reducing Max Strands

For Slow Computers:

  • Display % at 25%
  • Steps at 2
  • Thickness at 0.5
  • Disable Show Guides
  • Reduce Max Strands to 25,000

Common Issues

Hair Looks Jagged

  • Increase Steps to 4-5
  • Enable Antialiasing (if using Preview Shader)
  • Check viewport sampling settings

Can't See Hair Color

  • Check color mode is set correctly
  • Verify base color is not black
  • Switch viewport shading mode
  • Try Material Preview mode

Viewport is Slow

  • Reduce Display %
  • Reduce Steps
  • Disable Preview Shader
  • Check strand count (may be too high)

Hair Disappears

  • Check Show Strands is enabled
  • Verify Display % is not 0
  • Check hair is not hidden in outliner
  • Regenerate hair if needed

Colors Don't Match Render

  • Viewport colors are preview only
  • Set up proper hair material for rendering
  • Use Material Preview mode for better preview
  • Rendered mode shows final result

Technical Notes

  • Display settings are per-scene
  • Colors are stored as object properties
  • GPU Acceleration uses vectorized numpy
  • Preview Shader uses custom GLSL
  • Strand count updates on regeneration
  • All settings saved with Blender file

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