Abstract Class Name: Directional Light Behavior

Superclass - Light Rendering Behavior

Subclasses

Definition

This abstract class indicates that all sub-classes below it have the characteristics of a directional light.

Directional lights have a direction and lobe shape defined by a component Lobe Data object. The lobe shape parameters are used by sub-classes to specify cones, pyramids, blend geometry, etc.

Directional lights can have both a primary and a secondary color. These are specified by the Color components of the parent Geometry that have color_mapping values of SE_LIGHT_RENDERING_BEHAVIOR_PRIMARY_COLOR and SE_LIGHT_RENDERING_BEHAVIOR_SECONDARY_COLOR, respectively.

Primary Page in DRM Diagram:

Example

  1. A 100 kilometer highway has regularly spaced lampposts. Each lamp has Cone Directional Light with Lobe Data pointing down. If all the lamps use the same Cone Directional Light, instance, then all the directions will be parallel. Due to the curvature of the Earth, very few of the lights will shine directly down; the others will be slightly skewed. If, instead, the set of lamps is divided into smaller contiguous groups, each with its own Cone Directional Light instance using a Location near the center of the group, the skewing effect will be greatly minimized.

FAQs

How can I represent a simple bi-directional light?
This can be done using either a Cone Directional Light or a Pyramid Directional Light with primary and secondary colors. Set the horizontal and vertical widths of the lobe to 180 degrees and the invisible_behind to true.

Why does Directional Light Behavior have a (required) Location component? Is it the location of the light?
No; it does not represent the location of any light(s) that use this behavior. It is the reference location for the direction of the light (as expressed the Reference Vector components of the Lobe Data).
In most Spatial Reference Frames (SRFs), directions must refer to a location to account for the curvature of the earth. Even in linear space SRFs, localized directions may be important (See Example 1).

Constraints

None.

Composed of (one-way)

Component of (one-way)(inherited)


Notes

Composed of Notes

Lobe_Data

 lobe shape

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