Each particle group has its own settings. To access these settings, in the Particle Groups pane, right-click (Windows) or Command+click (Mac OS) the name of the desired group and choose Settings from the context menu.

In these settings, you can set a local value for the View Type and Show Object setting. For information on these two settings, see ”View Type", ”Show Objects" and ”Force This Setting" above.

In addition, here you can rename the group and change the color used to display the particles in the viewport. This is useful when working with multiple groups.

Name

When tags are created, they are automatically given a name according to their function. For example, a Vertex Map tag is appropriately called a "Vertex Map".

However, you can also give all objects and elements (e.g. shaders) any name you like. The object or element appears under this name, e.g. in the XPresso Editor or in the Timeline or link fields.

So far, so good. However, there are tags that can be assigned as often as required (e.g. Selection tags, Vertex Color tags, etc.). If they all had identical names, this could lead to problems. Imagine 2 Polygon Selection tags with the same name and you want to restrict a material to one of the selections: this becomes difficult with identical names, as only the Selection tag furthest to the left is used.

This is why Cinema 4D numbers them consecutively where it makes sense. For example, 3 Polygon Selection tags on the same object:

• Polygon Selection
• Polygon Selection.1
• Polygon Selection.2

This automatic numbering occurs when creating tags using the menu/command, when duplicating with the ctrl key and with some tag-creating tools such as the Paint Tool, MoGraph Selection, Bind Tool, etc.

View Type

In principle the same function as in the General settings but at group level. Use this setting to define the shape of the particles. Global assumes the setting from the General menu.

Color

Use Color

If this option is enabled, the particles in the group will be colored using the color defined in the Color setting described below.

If, on the other hand, you want to assign a color using the PSetData node (see Color), which can be used to assign a color to individual parameters, the Use Color option should be disabled (a color will then not be assigned as described above - white will be used instead).

Note that these settings will not affect rendering and are only designed to help display the particles in the Viewport and to more easily discern groups.

Show Object

When using more complex geometry as particles, their display in the Viewport can be sped up by disabling this option. See also Show Objects.