Asset Browser
Assets that are downloaded from Maxon servers are saved to the file path defined here. If you don’t modify this path you will be able to access these assets with future C4D versions as well without making any additional changes and without having to download them again.
You can also define custom paths if you like.
Assets already downloaded from Maxon can be removed using this command. They can be downloaded again in the browser at any time.
At the right of the button you will see the amount of memory the downloaded assets require. This memory can be freed up by clicking on the Clear Downloaded button.
Click on the Update icon at the far right to update the memory display if you’ve deleted or addes assets.
Some assets might not reflect the license you are currently using. These will normally be hidden and can be displayed in the Asset Browser by enabling this option. This option can also be enabled/disabled in the Asset Browser’s View menu.
Defines the size with which the previews should be saved, internally. The maximum size can be displayed in the preview window if the preview window is scaled large enough. The internal database will, though, swell quickly in size if too many large previews are saved.
These are the Asset databases. All directories that are define here will be searched for assets. Assets that are stored in this location will be listed in the Asset Browser or Node Editor and will be found by scenes that use the respective asset(s).
You will find more information about how to use this GUI element here.
Content Browser (Legacy)
This option only applies to the right content window and defines whether or not contents in this window will be shown first. Otherwise, directories and files will be treated equally and sorted according to the View / Sort By option.
This option defines whether or not the search results should be sorted during the search or after the search has been completed. The latter will produce faster search results. The fastest results can be achieved if Unsorted is selected, which will not sort the results at all.
With this option you can prevent the Content Browser from taking too long when scanning directories, e.g., if files contain GI. If the limit set with this slider is exceeded, the Content Browser will use the editor view instead of the rendered preview. If this method also exceeds the slider’s settings as well, the Content Browser will remember this file and not even attempt to render a preview the next time it’s accessed. You can, though, manually force the Content Browser to render a preview by right-clicking on the item and selecting the Create Preview option.
If this option is active, thumbnails of known file formats will be shown. Since generating such previews can take quite some time, deactivating this option will display standard icons.
Select the quality of the preview images by selecting an option from the list.
Activate this option if the thumbnails should be displayed in rendered quality instead of editor view quality. Since this process can take quite a long time, you can use the timeout slider described above to limit the time the Content Browser will occupy with this task.