Common attributes of lights

• Position and orientation
• Hue or Color
• Brightness or Intensity
• Cone or beam angle
• Attenuation, decay or fall-off
  
  

• Ambient - the "baseline" scattered light in a scene, attributible to no source, travelling in all directions
  
  

• Directional or Infinite or Parallel
  • directional, parallel light passing thru the scene, with no discernable source
  • often used to simulate sunlight
    
    

• Point or Omnidirectional
  • light is emitted radially from a point
    
    

• Spot
  • direction
  • cone angle
  • falloff
  • attenuation

• Area
  • two-dimensional array of sources
  • simulates diffuse light sources
  • creates soft shadows
  • very computationally expensive
    

• Linear
  • like area, except one-dimensional array
    

• Volume
  
  • light effects defined by a bounded volume in space
    
  • volume lights appear to illuminate empty space in a scene (e.g. the "cone" of light descending from a street light).
    

• Post processing light effects
  
  • Glows
    
  • Lens flares
    

Back to 3D Color outline

This file was last modified on January 29, 2002.