Light Objects

You have different types of light sources available to illuminate your objects. The available light sources simulate the most important types of natural and artificial light sources, such as sunlight or a spotlight. Light sources can also be added directly via the + button in the Objects List, just like cameras and parametric base objects.

Note:

Forger currently only supports illumination by up to four light sources. You can use as many light sources as you want in the scene, but the lighting is only calculated by the first four light sources.


Table of content


General Light Settings

All light sources have basic settings in common, such as the intensity and coloration of the light. In this section we will look at these basic settings.

General light settings, shared by all light objects.

Transform Settings

Just like mesh objects, light sources also provide Transform settings that can be used to precisely describe the position and direction of light sources in 3D space. This is particularly useful for light sources, as they often emit light only in a specific direction - often along the negative Z axis - and should therefore often be aligned with the objects to be illuminated.

The only difference is the Scaling setting that cannot be used for light sources. Light sources that use a shape to emit light provide their own size parameters in the Base tab.

At the upper border of the settings dialog you can also find two icons, labeled with 1 and 2 in the image above. The chain icon at number 1 links the visibility state of this light object (see eye symbol in the Objects List) to the Enabled option of the light (see Base settings). Having this icon active will deactivate the light if it's visibility is switched off. Having the icon deactivated, you can still use the light to illuminate objects even if its visibility is switched off.

The light bulb icon with the number 2 in the image above can be used to convert the active light object into a simple point light. Just be aware that this conversion often changes the character of the lighting. Point lights emit light in all directions, while most other types of light emit light only in certain directions.

Base Settings

Specific Light Settings

Directional Light

A Directional Light simulates natural sunlight. Its characteristic is that it hits surfaces from a very large distance and therefore all light rays of this light source are parallel to each other. For this reason, there is also no decay in this type of light. The position of this light source does not matter, only the direction.

The Directional Light just has one additional parameter in addition to the general light parameters described here, which is Camera Aligned. This option will modify the light to emit in the direction of the currently active camera. This will not change the actual orientation of the light object so you can always switch this option off again to return to its original direction. As every new project already has a default Light, this is as well a Directional Light that has Camera Aligned switched on.

Point Light

A Point Light emits light evenly in all directions. This is the simplest light source available, as it works much like an incandescent bulb or a candle flame. However, since most artificial light sources are built into housings and use reflectors, the Point Light is very limited in producing realistic light. A Spot Light can be more realistic because it can be aimed at objects and provides a falloff around the light cone.

Spot Light

Unlike a simple Point Light, a Spot Light can be directed specifically at objects, for example, to illuminate only a part. In addition, the simulated light cone can also be designed to softly taper off to the side. The following settings are available in addition to the general light settings:

Both values can also be controlled directly by moving handles in the viewport.

Area Light

The Area Light represents the most realistic light source for simulating artificial light sources, since here the light emanates from an actual area. Surfaces are illuminated in a correspondingly more diffuse manner, since the light rays exhibit a natural variation in direction when they strike surfaces. The fact that area lights can have different shapes and sizes also makes their reflection calculations more realistic. Just take note, that Area Lights are not able to calculate shadows.
The following parameters are unique to Area Lights:

Photometric Light

Basically a Photometric Light works like a Point Light, but here the light output can be controlled with an .ies file. This data is created by measuring the light angles and luminous intensities of real light sources. In fact, these .ies files can usually be downloaded free of charge directly from the light manufacturers. Just search for IES file download on the internet and copy these .ies files into the photometric folder of Forger.

Unlike the other light sources, the Photometric Light provides a preview area. A tap in this area opens a selection window for the installed .ies files. There, select the file whose illumination information you want to use. All other settings are again identical to a Point Light.

On the left you can see the Photometric Light settings with its preview area (1), IES selection dialog (2) and the presentation of a Photometric Light in the viewport (3).