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Transparency Sorting in the viewer contextual menu
The basic rule is when a scene contains overlapping transparency, use the Full/Quick Sort modes, and otherwise use the Z-buffer (Fast). If the Full Sort method is too slow, try switching back to
Z-buffer (Fast).
Material Viewer
When you view a node that comes from the 3D > Material category of nodes in the Effects Library, the viewer automatically switches to display a Material Viewer. This Material Viewer allows you to preview the material applied to a lit 3D sphere rendered with OpenGL by default.
The Material Viewer mode of the viewer
The type of geometry, the renderer, and the state of the lighting can all be set by right-clicking the viewer and choosing options from the contextual menu. Each viewer supports A and B buffers to assist with comparing multiple materials.
— You can change the shape of the previewed geometry by right-clicking the viewer and choosing an option from the Shape submenu of the contextual menu. The geometry that the material is applied to is locked to the center of the viewer and scaled to fit. It is not possible to pan or scale the Material Viewer.