Lighting

Perhaps there just isn't, but is there a way to create, one way or another, direct lighting. An example would be you draw a billboard with spotlights on it. I can create circles that I hide and gradually shade them out, but thats inefficient and doesnt jive with shadow functions.

SU only has the sun as a light source. Search for lighting to find a few tricks.

Gerry

You also want to search for renderers. For example someone is in the homestretch on writing an updated converter to Pov Ray for SU5. A special toolbar will allow you to more easily place lighting features for that rendering program. More info about that in the Ruby forum too.

Hey Guys and Gals,

What do you think of this lighting? 100% SU

Matte ;)

...and you can also play around with the shadow sliders to create a more ambient feel...and alter which faces cast and receive shadows.

Alan

Will you share your secrets for doing this?

Here's the skp. Remember, materials in SU are double-sided. You can paint the ceiling as normal put paint its top surface transparent to let the light in. You can do the same with circles drawn on it to form spotlights...as long as you hide their edges.

Alan

lighting.skp

Alans solution is much more elegant then mine was. I made the ceiling transparent from the outside top to allow light in, then I made another rectangle the size of the ceiling and placed it a few inches higher above the ceiling and cut holes in it. Alans way is better. Just make the back side of the circle cut in the ceiling transparent. Another cool thing about Alan's way is that you can adjust the amount of transparentsie of each circle individually, thereby controling the intensity of each light seperately.

Matte