What's New in Director 8.5 > Working with Lights and Cameras > Working with lights and cameras overview > Light properties

 

Light properties

Use these properties to work with lights:

Property Name

Access

Description

Default

name

Get

Unique name of this light.

If the light was exported from a 3D modeling package, the name is the name assigned there.

None

parent

Get and set

The model, light, camera, or group that is this light's parent.

If the light has no parent, it cannot contribute light.

Group ("World")

child.count

Get

Number of immediate children (no grandchildren) that the light has.

0

transform

Get and set

Lingo transform object representing light's position relative to its parent's transform.

The transform.position gives the relative position; transform.rotation gives the relative rotation.

Identity transform

userData

Get and set

A property list associated with this light. The list defaults to the properties assigned in the 3D modeling tool, but users can add or delete properties at any time.

Properties assigned in 3D modeling tool

type

Get and set

The kind of light this is. Must be one of the following:

#ambient: applied to all sides of the model#directional: applied to those parts of the light facing the light's direction. Distance to the light isn't important.#point: Like a bare light bulb, omnidirectional and illuminating all parts of the model facing the light#spot: Like a spotlight, casting light on model parts that face it, with brighter illumination the closer the model is. Similar to #directional, except that the apparent distance from the light is taken into account.

None

color

Get and set

Lingo color object defining color and intensity. Ranges from rgb(255,255,255), which is pure white to rgb(0,0,0), which is no light at all.

rgb(191,191,191)

spotAngle

Get and set

Angle of the light's projection cone.

If type equals #spot, setting a value less than the umbra causes a Lingo "property not found" error.

90.0

attenuation

Get and set

A three-value vector controlling the constant, linear, and quadratic attenuation factors for spotlights.

vector(1.0,0.0,0.0)

specular

Get and set

TRUE (1)/FALSE (0) value that controls whether or not the light produces specular effects on surfaces. The property is ignored for ambient lights.

Although TRUE (1) is the default, switching to FALSE (0) may improve performance.

TRUE (1)

spotDecay

Get and set

TRUE (1)/FALSE (0) value that controls whether or not spotlight intensity falls off with camera distance.

FALSE (0)

pointAtOrientation

Get and set

Two orthogonal vectors (objectRelativeDirection and objectRelativeUp) controlling how the light's pointAt command works.

None

boundingSphere

Get

A list containing a vector and a floating-point value, with the vector representing the position and the value the radius of a bounding sphere surrounding the light and all its children.

[vector (0,0,0), 0.0]

worldPosition

Get and set

Position of the light in world coordinates. Shortcut for the command node.getWorldTransform()position.

Vector object