#Lights

There are three kinds of light, each a component. A light shines along its entity's -Z axis, so turning the entity aims it.

Each has an icon in the viewport, in the light's own colour. Select it to see how far it reaches.

#Directional light

Light from far away, such as the sun. Every ray is parallel, so where the entity is does not matter, only which way it is turned.

A rotation of about (-50, 30, 0) gives a mid-morning sun.

#Point light

Light in every direction from where the entity is: a bulb, a torch, a fire.

#Spot light

A cone of light: a lamp, a headlight, a stage light.

A small gap between the two angles gives a hard edge, and a large one a soft edge.

#Intensity is not in physical units

Intensity multiplies the light directly. Start with 3 for a sun and 5 to 40 for point and spot lights, depending on their range, and adjust by eye. The scene's Exposure then brightens or darkens the whole picture.

#Limits

• A frame draws up to 16 lights. Any more are skipped, and the console says so.
• Only the first directional light with shadows on casts them.
• Point and spot lights share twelve shadow maps: one a spot light, six a point light. So two point lights, or twelve spot lights, or a mix. Lights past that still light the scene and cast no shadow.

Shadows are the expensive part. Give them to the lights where they are noticed.

#Light from the sky

A Sky component lights the scene from every direction with an HDR image, which fills in what the lights above leave dark. See Rendering.

#From a script

local light = self.Entity.PointLight
light.Color = Color.Orange
light.Intensity = 20

-- Flicker.
light.Intensity = 18 + math.random() * 4

-- Fade out over a second.
Tween.To(light, "Intensity", 0, 1)

declare const entity: Entity;

const light = entity.PointLight!;
light.Color = Color.Orange;
light.Intensity = 20;

// Flicker.
light.Intensity = 18 + Math.random() * 4;

// Fade out over a second.
Tween.To(light, "Intensity", 0, 1);