Method
This node simulates a skylight/dome light by surrounding the scene with a large number of shadow-casting spotlights positioned on the dome pointing inwards. This allows the skylight to be rendered efficiently, although it may still be too slow for real-time use in many scenes.
To increase efficiency the spotlight shadow maps can be cached and only a subset updated per frame. This reduces render time significantly but reduces responsiveness to animation.
*Turn on deferred rendering on the root node to enable the skylight.
Example |
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Nodegraph Example |
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Attributes
Name |
Description |
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Omnidirectional |
When enabled, light emits from all directions inward. When disabled, light only emits from above. |
Brightness |
Brightness of the skylight. |
SkyDome Radius |
Radius of the skylight. |
Dome Vertical Weight |
Balances the weighting of the sides and the top of the dome – to blend between a true dome effect and a more ambient-occlusion-like look. |
Shadow Bias |
Increasing the shadow bias can improve the accuracy of grounding objects to their shadows. |
Apply Diffuse |
Enable / disable diffuse lighting for a Sky Light. |
Apply Specular |
Enable / disable specular lighting for a Sky Light. |
Apply Refracted |
Skylight Rays can move through translucent surfaces. |
Num Sample Directions |
Number of directions sampled for the skylight. |
Shadow Map Size |
Size of the shadow map for each direction sampled. |
Num Sample Direction Renders Per Frame |
How many directions are sampled per frame. Lower values increase efficiency, but changes in the scene may not be reflected immediately. |
Dynamic |
Toggles off dynamic sampling which aids performance. |
Raytrace |
This will enable raytracing in the skylight. Only works with raytracing enabled in the Root node. |
Raytraced Samples |
How many samples will be taken per frame for raytracing. Best used with continuous refinement enabled and the RT Refinement Node. |
Translucent Raytraced Shadows |
Allows translucent shadows to be generated by Glass Materials. |
Visible Sky Dome |
Generates a visible sky box around the light scene. |
Inputs
Name |
Description |
Typical Node Input |
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Objects |
Select which objects should be affected by the skylight. |
3D Object |
Environment Map |
Add an environment map to control the colour of the skylight. |
Environment Map |
Point Cache |
Use a point cache to improve the accuracy of the Lighting in your scene. Not used when Ray Tracing is enabled. |
Point Cache |
Transform Modifier |
Links all transform properties to the input node. |
Null |
Target Node |
Always faces the x-axis towards the inputs anchor point. |
Null |
Local Transform Override |
Override the transformation values of the node, relative to its parent. |
Null |
Outputs
All nodes connected to this node are treated as if flowing to the parent node, and inherits any transformation changes along the chain.