This page offers information about the Sphere Light in Chaos Vantage.


Overview

The Sphere Light is the representation of the V-Ray Sphere Light in Chaos Vantage. The Sphere Light can be either created using the Create new Light object tool > Sphere or imported with a .vrscene file.

You can use the right mouse button click to reset the parameters numeric values to defaults.

Lights that have [G] in front of their name are grouped and share properties. Changing any value will be instanced in all the grouped lights. You can ungroup lights by clicking the checkbox in front of "Grouped with ## other lights".

Vantage_LightsLists_Group.png

Listed parameters can be filtered by using the Compact, Basic, and Advanced buttons.

Vantage_LightsPropertiesFilter.png



Parameters

Enabled – Turns on and off the sphere light.

Color – Changes the color of the sphere light. See the Color example below.

Intensity – Specifies the intensity of the sphere light's brightness. See the Intensity example below.

When importing Sphere Lights from a .vrscene file, the Intensity parameter may appear as Luminous power, Luminance, Radiant power or Radiance, depending on the unit type specified in the host application. Lights created directly in Vantage default to using Intensity.

Invisible – When enabled, makes the light invisible, both to the camera and to reflections. This is useful to prevent bright speckles on glossy surfaces where a ray with low probability hits the extremely bright sphere. See the Invisible example below.

Radius – Specifies the radius of the sphere light. See the Radius example below.

Shadows – When enabled (the default), the light casts shadows. Turn this option off to disable shadow casting for the light. The value moves the shadow toward or away from the shadow-casting object(s). Higher values move the shadow toward the object(s), while lower values move it away. If this value is too extreme, shadows can "leak" through places they shouldn't or "detach" from an object. Other effects from extreme values include Moire patterns, out-of-place dark areas on surfaces, and shadows not appearing at all in the rendering. See the Shadows example below.

Affect diffuse – Determines whether the light affects the diffuse portion of the materials. The value controls the light's contribution to the diffuse portion of the materials. See the Affect Diffuse example below.

Affect specular – Determines whether the light affects the specular portion of the materials. The value controls the light's contribution to specular reflections. See the Affect Specular example below.

Affect reflections – Specifies whether the light source appears in reflections.

Use global mult. - When enabled, uses the Enable Lights value (Render tab > Advanced mode > Lighting rollout) as a multiplier to Intensity value. When disabled, the light is independent from the global multiplier.


Vantage_SphereLight_UI.png



Examples

The following examples demonstrate the effect that individual Sphere Light parameters have on the scene. Click on any image to view it at a higher resolution.

 

Color

This example shows the effect of the Color parameter.


Intensity

This example shows the effect of the Intensity parameter.


Color is red

Color is green

Color is blue



Intensity = 5

Intensity = 10

Intensity = 20

Intensity = 30

Intensity = 50

Intensity = 100


 



Radius

This example shows the effect of the Radius parameter.


Radius = 1

Radius = 3

Radius = 5




 



Invisible

This example shows the effect of the Invisible parameter.


Shadows

This example shows the effect of the Shadows parameter.







Affect Diffuse

This example shows the effect of the Affect diffuse parameter.


Affect Specular

This example shows the effect of the Affect specular parameter.