Light Properties

Search our Site

Light Properties

Object
Object Name Name of the Selected Object
Object ID ID of the Object. This cannot be changed and is automatically generated by Bright Engine. When accessing this object via scripts, the ID is used to identify which object you are interacting the script with.
Group ID ID of the group the Object is assigned to.
Properties Property set assigned to the object.
Hide Button By enabling this feature, the selected Object will be hidden in the viewport.
Lock Button By enabling this feature, the selected Object can no longer be translated, rotated or scaled. It is also removed from the selection pass meaning, re-selection of the object at a later stage must be done via the Hierarchy panel. Locked objects have a yellow bounding box. This can be toggled at any time.
Position X,Y,Z co-ordinates of the Object in the Zone
Rotation Pitch, Yaw, Roll angles of the Object in the Zone

Light
On/Off Button Turn the light source on or off
Type Sets the type of light source to emit:
  • Point- Cast light in all directions from the light source
  • Spot - Cast light as a cone in a specific direction from the light source
  • Area - Cast light from a surface in a specific direction from the light source
Shape (Area Light Only) Sets the Shape from which the light is emitted.
  • Rectangular
  • Disk
  • Sphere
Color Mode Sets the method of coloring for the light.
  • Temperature (Kelvin)
  • sRGB
Color RGB color of the light source
Temperature The temperature is based on the Blackbody radiation theory where a higher temperature results in a higher energy waveform of light. The color value is automatically calculated based on the temperature and allows for physically accurate environments for white light sources.
Intensity Sets the intensity of the light source in Lumen.
Illuminance (Area Lights Only) Sets the Illuminance of the light source in Lux.
Attenuation Radius Sets the maximum distance light can travel. The intensity of light is interpolated to give a smooth transition once it has reached maximum distance. Note that Attenuation Radius also sets the maximum render distance of an object to a light source when rendering shadow maps.
Falloff Bias Adds a small bias to the interpolation of light intensity when reaching the attenuation radius.
Inner Radius Inner radius of a spot light
Outer Radius Outer radius of a spot light
Area Width (Area Light Only) Sets the width of the light surface
Area Height (Area Light Only) Sets the height of the light surface
Area Radius (Area Light Only) Sets the radius of the light surface
Cast Shadow Make the Light a Shadow Caster

Note: Area Lights are not currently able to cast shadows
Shadow Mod Increases the strength of the shadows based on the modifier value. Be aware that increasing the modifier value to greater than 0 means that you are no-longer using physically accurate shadows.
Shadow Bias The shadow bias is a method to reduce artefacts from shadows. This value should always be above zero for best results, however if the value is set too high, it can start clipping the shadows giving poor results. This is a trial an error value to see what works for your project. Generally 0.15 for Point and Spot Lights gives the best result and so is the default value.
Shadow Fade Range The shadow fade range allows for shadows to slowly fade out instead of clipping after a certain distance. The value is the distance over which the fade out occurs, if this value is out of proportion with the light strength, strange results will occur. By setting this value to 0, the effect is disabled.
Baked Shadows If this setting is checked, the light will skip the shadow calculations and use a baked shadow map instead. This is a method of optimizing performance for light sources which aren’t going to have any moving objects around them.
Whenever you disable this setting or change the light Type the baked shadow maps for this light are removed from the project. This is a method of ensuring the project isn’t clustered with unused textures taking up more memory space.
Bake! This button performs the baking operation on the light source. Whenever you change something in the scene you will have to re-bake your shadow maps if you are using this shadow method. The text of this button will turn red whenever a shadow map is missing (ie needs to be baked)
Baking Resolution This sets the resolution the shadow map should be baked at. Note that baking at higher resolutions takes more time and cause Bright Engine to freeze up. If the engine stops responding, simply leave it to finish its task and it will return to normal once its done.
Higher resolution shadow maps use up more memory but give more accurate results.
Max Distance Sets the maximum Render Distance the light source is rendered before being ignored. It is good practice to adjust this value to a distance where the effects of the light source will no longer be visible to the camera for optimizing performance.
Fade Range Sets the distance across the model fades in/out. Setting a value to zero will cause the model to simply pop in/out.
Timeline Mode Switches the light to use timeline settings. Timeline settings are adjusted in the Timeline Editor and allow for varying setting values over a period of time such as a variation of color or strength.
Timeline Editor Opens the Timeline Editor.
Loop Method Sets the looping method for the timeline.
  • Loop Forward – Loops through the timeline in a forward direction.
  • Loop Backward – Loops through the timeline in a backwards direction.
  • Ping-Pong – Bounces between the start and end of the timeline in a loop.
Timeline Length Sets the time in seconds over which the timeline loop takes place.


Target Assignment
Target This is the target which the object will be assigned to. If working in a Zone with a large amount of targets, using the drop down list can be slow, instead use the Picker Button.
Picker Button When this is clicked, the user can select the target in the zone they want this object to become attached to by simply clicking on it. If you want to cancel this operation, simply click the picker button again.
Selector Button When this is clicked, the assigned target object will be selected.
Position Mode Sets the positioning rules of this object now that it is assigned to a target.
  • Independent – Object position is not influenced by assigned target.
  • Relative – Object positioning is affected by the assigned target, and a constant offset is maintained between the object and assigned target. The offset value is set by changing the position of the object. This means that if the assigned target is moving, the object will move relative to the target.
  • Absolute – Object positioning is set by the assigned target. This setting overrides all other positioning methods such as a waypoint path.
Rotation Mode Sets the rotational rules of this object now that it is assigned to a target.

  • Independent- Object rotation is not influenced by the assigned target.
  • Look At – Object rotation is influenced by the assigned target so that it will always be rotated to face in the direction of the target at all times.
  • Look Away – Object rotation is influenced by the assigned target so that it will always be rotated to face away from the target at all times.


Waypoint Assignment
Assigned Waypoints List of the assigned waypoints to the object. The order they appear in the list is the order the object will hop between paths.
Add Add a new waypoint assignment for this object. Note: don’t forget to assign a Waypoint and a Path to this waypoint assignment after creating it using the Waypoint and Path setting. If a path is not assigned to this waypoint assignment, the object will not hop onto it once it finishes its current path.
Rename Rename the selected Waypoint Assignment
Remove Remove the selected Waypoint Assignment. If there are no other Waypoint Assignments for this object, the object will detach from its current path and revert back to its world position.
Waypoint This is the waypoint which the object will be assigned to. Note that only waypoints which have at least one path can be selected. If working in a Zone with a large amount of waypoints, using the drop down list can be slow, instead use the Picker Button.
Path This is the selected path of the selected waypoint which the object will follow.
Picker Button When this is clicked, the user can select the waypoint in the zone they want this object to become attached to by simply clicking on it. Note that all waypoints which do not have at least one path are not rendered when using this tool. If you want to cancel this operation, simply click the picker button again.
Selector Button When this is clicked, the assigned waypoint object will be selected.
Initial Progress This sets how far along the path the object will be at the start of its movement. This is a percentage and has a value between 0 and 100.
Inherit Rotation This will cause the object to rotate itself in the same direction as the last waypoint passed within the path.
Interpolate Rotation The will cause the object to use an interpolated rotation value between the last and next waypoint along the path.
Interpolate After This will set the percentage progress of the distance travelled between the last and next waypoint along the path, before the interpolated rotation value is used.
Hop After This will set the percentage progress of the distance travelled until the object hops onto the next path within the Assigned Waypoint List. Note that objects will not hop to the next path, if the next path is not set.
Offset Position This sets an offset in the object’s position compared to the position along the path.
Offset Rotation This sets an offset in the object’s rotation compared to the rotation set by the waypoints.