3ds Max Lighting
3ds Max provides several groups of light sources: Standard and Photometic lights, both groups also including dedicated mental ray lights.
In addition, 3rd party extensions can implement their own plug-in lights, for example dedicated Brazil r/s lights, V-Ray lights, Dreamscape lights and so on.
Different light types can be used inside of light systems like the Sunlight and Daylight which provide advanced geographical location/date/time placement controls.
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Standard Lights
- Target Spot
- Free Spot
- Target Direct
- Free Direct
- Omni (Point light)
Spot, Direct and Omni lights can be freely switched to any of the other two types by selecting from the Light Type drop-down list. In addition, Spot and Direct lights can be either Targeted or Free (by checking/unchecking the Targeted checkbox). These were the initial types available in the first release of 3D Studio MAX.
Spot and Direct lights can be switched to illuminate as an Omni light (in all directions) by checking the Overshoot option, otherwise illumination occurs only in the cone / cylinder defining the light falloff. Also, Shadows of Spot and Direct lights will be calculated only within the cone / cylinder, while an Omni light will calculate a box of 6 shadow maps and use them in all 6 directions. Volumetric effects like Volume Fog which can be assigned to lights also respect the cone/cylinder of Spot and Direct lights, while Omni lights generate a spherical volumetric effect.
- Skylight
This light simulates a sky dome with raytraced shadows. It was developed by Blur Studio's Steve Blackmon and Scott Kirvan who provided the raytracing in R2 and later formed Splutterfish to release Brazil r/s.
- mr Area Omni
- mr Area Spot
These two lights were added in 3dsmax 6 with the inclusion of the mental ray renderer as a second rendering option. mental ray supports all other 3ds Max lights, but these two lights implement the native mental ray lights in 3ds Max instead of emulating the native 3ds Max lights in mental ray. These two lights will also render as regular Omni and Spot lights in the Default Scanline Renderer.
Shadows
Shadow generators have been changed to a plug-in type in 3dsmax 4, allowing 3rd party developers to add their own shadow generators to all light types. Initially, 3D Studio MAX 1.0 shipped with only Shadow Map and Ray Traced Shadows support, similar to the ones available in 3D Studio DOS. The latest 3ds Max 9 ships with 5 shadow map generators:
- Adv. Ray Traced
- mental ray Shadow Map
- Area Shadows
- Shadow Map
- Ray Trace Shadows
3rd party renderers like Brazil r/s and V-Ray add their own shadow map generators to the drop-down list of 3ds Max lights thus enabling native shadow modes to be used.
Photometric Lights
- Target Point
- Free Point
- Target Linear
- Free Linear
- Target Area
- Free Area
Photometric lights implement a physically-based lighting model where the illumination of surfaces is based on real-world energy calculation, typically in a Radiosity renderer. In 3ds Max, the translation of these lights to mental ray has been adjusted to deliver Global Illumination results comparable to the physically-correct Radiosity solution.
Point, Linear and Area lights can be converted between these types by selecting from the Light Type drop-down list. Each type can be set to either Targeted or Free by checking/unchecking the Targeted checkbox.
- IES Sun
- IES Sky
The IES Sun and IES Sky lights provide a physically-based illumination model for outdoor rendering when using the Radiosity Advanced Lighting option in the Default Scanline renderer.
- mr Sky
- mr Sun
The mr Sky and mr Sun lights provide a dedicated physical illumination model for outdoor rendering (in 3ds Max 9 and higher).
Light Systems
Systems in 3ds Max are special combinations of objects and controllers acting as one entity. The two light systems available in 3ds Max out of the box are
- Sunlight
- Daylight
Both lights use a Solar Date/Time controller which allows the user to enter geographical location (Latitude/Longitude) or pick a location from a world map and enter the data and time of the day to set the exact position of the sun at that moment. The values can also be animated for animated day/night light studies.
The Sunlight system contains a single Direct light for standard lighting.
The Daylight system contains an Assembly of two lights which are set by default to standard Direct and Skylight, but can be switched to IES Sun + IES Sky, mr Sun + mr Sky or any combination of these types.
- This page was last modified 06:05, 17 November 2006.
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