Sky Light

Updated: 3 Mar 2025

Add a dome of light to provide lighting from every angle. Best used with an enviroment image.

Method #

This node simulates a dome/sky 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.

All nodes connected to this node are treated as if flowing to the parent node, and inherits any transformation changes along the chain.

Parameters

Transform

Parameter	Details
Position X	The objects position along the local x-axis.
Position Y	The objects position along the local y-axis.
Position Z	The objects position along the local z-axis.
Rotation Heading	The objects rotation around the local y-axis.
Rotation Pitch	The objects rotation around the local x-axis.
Rotation Bank	The objects rotation around the local z-axis.
Scale X	The objects scale along the local x-axis.
Scale Y	The objects scale along the local y-axis.
Scale Z	The objects scale along the local z-axis.

Attributes

These properties control the core behaviours of the node.

Parameter	Details
Omnidirectional	When enabled, light emits from all directions inward. When disabled, light only emits from above.
Brightness	Brightness of the light emit skylight.
Sky Dome Radius	Radius of the skylight.
Visible Dome Brightness	Brightness of the visible skylight dome.
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 (refract) through translucent surfaces.
Scattering Intensity	How much the light is scattered by the light, creating a simple fog around it.
Translucent Raytraced Shadows	Allows translucent shadows to be generated by Glass Materials.
Visible Sky Dome	Generates a visible sky box around the light scene.
Lock Visible Sky Dome To Camera	Locks the rotation of the sky dome to the active camera.

Inputs

Name	Description	Typical Input
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 Image
Transform Modifiers	Apply the transforms of another node to this node.	Null
Target Node	Modifiy the rotations of the node to always direct the z axis towards the input.	Null
Local Transform Override	Apply the transforms of another node to this node, relative to its parent.	Null