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Manual 1.0 Manual 0.9.23
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Physical Lens Flare

Physical Lens Flare

Updated: 24 Feb 2025

Add a physically correct lens flare reflections and a starburst flare to the scene.

image

Example .dfx

Method #

This node simulates a lens setup to generate physically correct lens reflections and a starburst pattern from a given 3D transform point.

Parameters

ParameterDetails
Intensity Intensity of the flare components caused by reflections within the lens elements.
Chroma Amount of Chromatic aberration in the internal lens reflections.
Reflect Gamma Gamma curve applied to the internal lens reflections.
Coating Quality The simulated ‘Quality’ of the lens coatings. Higher quality coatings reduce the amount of internal reflections.
Fresnel Spectrum Shifts the hue of the Fresnel reflections in the lens elements.
Fresnel Variance Variance in the internal reflections across the lens elements.
Max Size Culls the reflections that are larger than this size.
Resolution Defines the resolution at which the lens reflections are calculated. Lower resolutions will improve performance, but may introduce artifacts. Resolution is based on current scene resolution.
  • Full : Calculates lens reflections at full resolution.
  • Half : Calculates lens reflections at half resolution.
  • Quarter : Calculates lens reflections at quarter resolution.

These properties control the core behaviours of the node.

ParameterDetails
Active Enables or disables the effect. Disabling the effect means it will no longer compute, so disabling a node when not in use can improve performance.
Active Custom Shader to use for the lens flare effect.
Viewport Info Show additional information in the viewwport about the Lens Setup.
  • Off : Don’t show additional information in the viewport.
  • Show Lenses : Show graph of the lens setup, and how the light is refracted and reflected in it.
Light Mode Effects the dimming of the lens reflections and starburst. Also controls the size of the starburst.
  • Near : The light source is treated as a near distance light. Size of the starburst is scaled based on the distance to the camera.
  • Distant : The light source is treated as an infinite sized distant light source. Size of the starburst is controlled by the ‘Light Size’ attribute only.
Mask When on, uses a depth based mask area around the light point to cover areas of the lens reflections and/or starburst pattern.
  • Off : Don’t use the depth mask area.
  • All : Mask both starburst and the lens reflections.
  • Starburst : Mask the starburst pattern. Effects the aperture shape used for the starburst flare calculation.
  • Reflections : Mask the lens reflections. The masked light rays are dimmed out from the lens reflections, resulting in seeing the edge shapes of blocking geometry in the lens reflections.
ParameterDetails
Distance Simulates the distance between the lens and the sensor.
Sensor Scale Simulates the scale of the camera sensor relative to the lens.
IOR Multiplier Globally controls the Index of Refraction (IOR) of all the lens elements.
IOR Variance Variance in the Index of Refraction (IOR) across the lens elements.
IOR Variance Frequency Controls the ‘scale’ of the Index of Refraction (IOR) variance across the lens elements.
Radius Multiplier Globally control how curved the lens elements are.
Radius Variance The variance in the curvature of the different lens elements.
Radius Variance Frequency Controls the frequency of the radius variance across the lens elements.
ParameterDetails
Radius Size of the aperture opening.
Angle Rotation angle of the aperture blades.
Sharpness How sharp the edges of the aperture blades are.
Blades Count Number of Aperture blades.
Corner Rounding How rounded the corners of the aperture blades are.
Dirt Controls the amount of dirt on the aperture blades.
ParameterDetails
Mode Toggle the starburst effect on or off.
  • Off : Disable the starburst effect.
  • Spectral : Toggle the spectral starburst effect.
Light Intensity Intensity of the light causing the flare.
Light Gamma Gamma correction for the light source.
Light Size Size of the light source.
Chroma Frequency Hue shift frequency of the chromatic aberration in the starburst.
Chroma Amount Amount of chromatic aberration in the starburst.
Aperture Sharpness Sharpness of the aperture shape used in the starburst calculation.
Aperture Scale Scale of the aperture shape used in the starburst calculation.
Aperture Dirt Controls the amount of dirt on the aperture blades.

Inputs

NameDescriptionTypical Input
Transform NodeControls the position of the flare in the scene.Null
Lens Dirt ImageTexture map to simulate dirt on the lens.Video Loader
Starburst Dirt ImageTexture map to simulate dirt on the starburst.Video Loader
Light Dir XTBCTBC
Light Dir YTBCTBC
Ghost ScaleTBCTBC