Ambient light

Menu access : Tools | Light

or:  Image | Light (TopSolid/Image module)

Description :

Ambient light : the light intensity is the same in all points and all directions.

General philosophy:

Click on the image to get detailed informations and change the light type.

Specific point(s):

You can define as many sources of light as you want. However, your graphic board limits the number of light sources you can turn on simultaneously. If you pass this number, only the first light sources of the list are enable. In all cases, a minimum of height light sources is usable.

The light computation is the most complex part of the rendering and uses the more computation time. More light sources you have, slowest the rendering will be. It is better to use some light sources at the right position instead of many of them. Specifically: it is useless to have several ambient lights.

The distance for minimal half-intensity is the one corresponding to a null intensity at the infinitum. If the half-intensity reference distance isn’t minimal, the attenuation won’t be total, and it will still remain some light whatever the distance is.

In order to compute the light of a point, TopSolid computes the light at the face vertices and interpolates values. Result can sometimes looks “strange” when using spots if the vertices are not all under light. To solve this problem, you have to reduce the max facet size