Table of Contents


This page provides information on the types of V-Ray Lights.

 

Overview

V-Ray for SketchUp offers a number of lights essential for a good render. Whether you are preparing an interior or exterior scene, you can find the appropriate lighting options in the V-Ray toolbar or in the Asset Editor.

Depending on the scene and the effect you are trying to create with light, you might choose to use only one type of light or any combination of lights.

Below you can find detailed information on creation, application, and UI functionalities of the different V-Ray lights.

 

 

 

UI Paths

 

 

||V-Ray Asset Editor|| > Lights (right-click)

||V-Ray Asset Editor|| > Create Asset (left-click) > Lights

 

 

||V-Ray Lights Toolbar|| > V-Ray Lights

 

 

SketchUp Menus Ribbon

||Extensions|| > V-Ray > Lights

 

 

 

  • Creating a light item from the Asset Editor does not create it automatically into the viewport. You can find the item in SketchUp's Components list and add it to the scene from there.
  • When changing the Units of a given light, its preview is updated accordingly. Changes of the light intensity value are displayed to a certain amount in order for the preview to remain illustrative.
  • Using the Esc key during light creation cancels the action without deselecting the tool.
  • Create lights in the Asset Editor from the Create Asset button (bottom-left corner) or the Lights category icon (top). If the Lights category is empty, left- or right-clicking on the icon prompts you to create a new asset. Otherwise, it selects the category, in which case right-clicking on it opens the creation menu.
  • The Asset creation dropdown lists remain active when Ctrl (Cmd on Mac OS) key is pressed, allowing the creation of multiple assets in quick succession. The Asset creation dropdown lists can be activated via the Create Asset button or the Asset Category icons. 
  • Selecting a V-Ray tool exposes hints about its usage in the SketchUp status bar.
    Basic info is also displayed in the SketchUp Instructor Panel. It works for Infinite Plane, Scene Interaction Tools, and Lights - Omni, Rectangle, Spot, Sphere, and Dome.

 

 

Types of Lights

 

Omni Light

V-Ray Omni Light is a V-Ray specific light that can be used to create physically accurate lights. It casts rays in all directions from a single source.

Rectangle Light

V-Ray Rectangle Light is a planar light source with the shape of a rectangle or of a circular disk. Rectangle lights are useful for simulating man-made light sources, such as lamps, in an interior environment.

Spot Light

V-Ray Spot Light is a V-Ray specific light source plugin. Use it to create a physically accurate light that directs a narrow beam of light with falloff.

Dome Light

Dome light (also known as Area light) creates light within a dome or spherical shape to create a traditional global illumination setup. This light is frequently used to load HDRI environment images.

Sphere Light

Sphere Light is a VRay Light object in the shape of a sphere, casting light outward in all directions.

IES Light

IES lights are designed to realistically simulate the distribution pattern of a light source by loading and using an IES (Illumination Engineering Society) file. An IES profile contains details about the behavior of the light, such as how the light passes through fresnel lenses, its intensity, and its falloff.

Mesh Light

Mesh Light can create light sources that have volume and shape defined by geometry in the scene without the need to use self illuminated objects and global illumination.

SunLight

Sun light is a spherical light source placed at a specific location which simulates the sun in the sky. There is no icon for Sun Light. It is automatically created in the scene and visible in the Lights section of the Asset Editor.

V-Ray Light Gen

V-Ray Light Gen offers various lighting options. There are two main categories - Exterior and Interior.

Notes

  • When exporting a project from SketchUp to LayOut, you might want to hide the V-Ray objects (proxies, lights, fur, clipper, and infinite plane) exposed in the viewport. This is possible by using Hide V-Ray Widgets button in V-Ray toolbar.
  • Negative intensity values are not allowed for any of the lights.

  • The context options of the Color Slot allow to Copy and Paste a color from one color slot to another, as well as to Reset the color selection to a default value.

  • You can reset the Input Number Slider's value to its default value by right-clicking on the slider and selecting the Reset context menu option.

  • Most numeric V-Ray parameters come with a slider to make fine-tuning easier. Each slider is set to a default range of recommended or commonly used values. If a value above that range is used the slider adapts by increasing its range accordingly (2x the input value) to maintain usability. If a value below the current slider range is used, the slider again adjusts its range by shrinking it to twice the amount of the input value.

  • The slider range does not indicate the parameter's total minimum and maximum input values. The absolute minimum and maximum values of each parameter can be found by hovering over its spinbox.

  • The Select Objects in Scene option allows selection and multi-selection of components and groups in the viewport.