Anchor
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Light Properties
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Parameters of the light quality and location.
Light Type: Type and color of the light, and whether it is on or off. *Pow Anchor
Power: The intensity of the light, in watts. The higher the setting, the brighter the light. This parameter is relevant only for Radiosity rendering. The absolute values (0 through 255) of the color components handled through the Color controls determine the absolute value of the light power. For example, if only the Red color is enabled and its color value is N (N=R+G+B), then the actual value of the light power is determined by the following expression (P*N/255) where P is the power value set in the Power field.
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Tip: Setting wattage values too high can cause objects to have a washed-out appearance. *Sp
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Anchor
Penumbra: The angle of the beam. *U Anchor
Umbra: The angle of the dark center of the spot light. *Be Anchor
Beam: The sharpness of the spotlight. A value of 0 means the light will be evenly dispersed. A higher value means more light will be concentrated toward the center of the beam. *Sk Anchor
Sky: Parameters that apply only to Sky lights. *Lig Anchor
Light distribution:* The level of sky clarity, ranging from clear to overcast. For a clear sky, the brightest part of the sky surrounds the sun. For an overcast sky, the brightest part of the sky is straight up. *M Anchor
Min Lod:* Minimum level of detail for area source decomposition. Usually this value is between 0.0 and 1.0, closer to 0.0, but values can be greater than 1.0 as well. This parameter determines the initial sampling for lighting calculation. If Min Lod is too low, shadow boundaries may not be reproduced correctly. If it is too high, rendering may take a long time. Practical values are between 0.0 and 0.5.M Anchor 44 44 , their values will be reversed. *Te Anchor
Temperature: The ambient temperature, in degrees K. Used to set the sky color. *Er Anchor
Error Bounds: the shader will perform adaptive sampling, once its initial sampling is complete. The * Error bounds parameter then dictates the accuracy of the solution. An value of 0.1 means that the maximum error associated with the illumination of a particular point of interest is less than 10% of the energy associated with the illumination arriving at the point. Values much smaller than 0.1 are not unusual; the default value (0.5) discourages adaptive sampling. *Noi Anchor
Position: The location or origin of the light. Direction: For lights with a specific orientation, these are delta values in X, Y, and Z representing the directional vector.
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OpenGL Specific Properties
Parameters relevant for OpenGL rendering.The Open GL rendering engine creates views of lower quality than the LightWorks engine, but at a higher speed.
Ambient: The amount of ambient light - light provided equally from all directions. *Dif Anchor
Diffuse: The quantity of diffuse light reflected by each surface that is lit by the light. When diffuse light strikes a surface, it is reflected in every direction equally. This makes the surface appear as if it has a rough or matte finish. *Sp Anchor
Specular: The quantity of specular light reflected by each surface that is lit by the light. When specular light strikes a surface, it reflects in only one direction. This makes the surface appear as if it has a smooth, mirror-like finish.
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Warning: The Open GL settings are cumulative. When all three light component values are set to the maximum, the light source will generate three times the amount of light of a single maximum setting.
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LightWorks Specific Properties
Parameters relevant for LightWorks rendering.The LightWorks rendering engine creates views of high quality, but view creation can take time.
*F Anchor
Natural Quadratic:* 1/(d*d+1) *Lin Anchor
Linear: 1/d *Quad Anchor
Quadratic: 1/d*d
Where d = the distance from the light source. *S Anchor
Scattering: Creates the effect of light being scattered by a foggy atmosphere. *Sh Anchor
Shadow: Controls shadow display. Increasing Resolution enables you to smooth the shadow edges. You may get some light and shadow effects by specifying Quality and Softness parameters.
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Parameters relevant for RedSDK rendering.The RedSDK rendering engine creates views of varying quality depending on settings.
Fall Off: Relevant for Point and Spot light sources, determines the way in which the light's intensity is attenuated as a function of the distance from the source. By default this parameter is set to "NONE", i.e. light intensity is constant. Other available fall-off types include: LINQUA, DMAX2, LINEAR, QUADRATIC, CUBIC, N3DSMAX, L3DSMAX, Q3DSMAX
The formula for each type is displayed directly below the drop-down box when that type is selected.
Advanced: Provides access to parameters for each selected Fall Off type.
Scattering: Creates the effect of light being scattered by a foggy atmosphere.
Shadow: Controls shadow display of shadow whether it is on or off.
Resolution: Controls the smoothness of the shadow edges.
Blur: Controls whether the shadow edges are blurred or sharp.
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Light Sets
A light set is a group of lights, which can be handy if you want to set identical parameters for multiple lights. Light sets are created and manipulated in the Design Director. See See Design Director- Lights.