Contents
This one-sided area light emits a disk shaped illumination. The disk scale is adjusted by its scale transform which can be non-uniform.
An environment light source that implements a simple analytical physical model for terrestial daylight under clear skies. The sky model is based on A Practical Analytic Model for Daylight by A.J. Preetham, Peter Shirley, and Brian Smits. The solar disk model is adapted from H.C. Hottel's A Simple Model for Estimating the Transmittance of Direct Solar Radiation Through Clear Atmospheres, with parameters curve fitted for turbidity from physical data and a simple limb darkening model.
Parameters
Intensity
Scales the contribution of this light linearly.
The light intensity is computed using physical units which are typically 100.000 times too intense for regular RGB rendering. We scale it internally by 1e-e5 to generate pleasing illumination levels.
RIB: float intensityDefault: 1.0
Exposure
Specifies the exposure of the area light as a power of 2. Increasing the exposure by 1 will double the energy emitted by the light source. A value of 0 produces an intensity of 1 at the source, -1 produces 0.5.
RIB: float exposureDefault: 0.0
Direction
sunDirection: The apparent direction towards the center of the sun. The zenith is at +Z (for noon light) and the horizon is in the XY plane (for sunrise/set). Note that the Z component must non-negative. Ignored if a month is given.
RIB: vector sunDirectionDefault: 0 0 1.0
Haziness
The turbidity of the sky. The lower limit of the model is 1.7 for an exceptionally clear sky, and 10, for an inversion, is the upper limit.
RIB: float hazinessDefault: 2.0
Sky Tint
Tweak the sky's contribution and color. The default, white, gives results based on measured physical values.
RIB: color skyTintDefault: 1.0 1.0 1.0
Sun Tint
Tweak the sun's contribution and color. The default, white, gives results based on measured physical values.
RIB: color sunTintDefault: 1.0 1.0 1.0
Sun Size
Scale the apparent size of the sun in the sky. Leave at 1 for a realistic sun size with an 0.55 degree angular diameter.
RIB: float sunSizeDefault: 1.0
Month
Month of the year, 1 through 12. The default, 0, means to use the explicitly given sun direction instead of automatically computing it.
RIB: float monthDefault: 0
Day
Day of the month, 1 through 31.
RIB: float dayDefault: 1
Year
Four digit year.
RIB: float yearDefault: 2015
Hour
Hours since midnight, local standard time. May be fractional to include minutes and seconds. If daylight saving time is in effect, subtract 1 to correct to standard time.
RIB: float hourDefault: 14.633333
Zone
Standard time zone offset from GMT/UTC in hours. Positive for east, negative for west. For example, this would be -8 for Pacific time.
RIB: float zoneDefault: -8
Latitude
Latitude in degrees. Positive for north, negative for south. Ranges from -90 to +90 degrees.
RIB: float latitudeDefault: 47.601903
Longitude
Longitude in degrees. Positive for east, negative for west. Ranges from -180 to 180 degrees.
RIB: float longitudeDefault: -122.331817
Refine
Specular Amount
Amount of specular light that is emitted. This is a non-physical control.
Diffuse Amount
Amount of diffuse light that is emitted. This is a non-physical control.
Shadows
Note: All shadow parameters will be ignored if the light's bidirectional is enabled.
Enable Shadows
Enable raytraced shadows.
Shadow Color
The color of the shadows cast by emitted light. This is a non-physical control.
.0 0.0 0.0
Shadow Distance
The maximum distance of the shadow starting from the position of the point being shaded. -1.0 is unset which will use the distance between the point being shaded and the point on the light.
Shadow Falloff
The distance from the light at which shadow falloff begins. -1.0 turns off shadow falloff.
Shadow Falloff Gamma
The gamma of the shadow strength in the falloff zone.
Trace Subset
Set of geometry to consider for traced shadow intersection. If this is not specified, all geometry are considered for traced shadow intersection.
Don't Trace Subset
Set of geometry to ignore for traced shadow intersection. If this is not specified, no geometry is ignored for traced shadow intersection.
Advanced
Trace Light Paths
Enable light and photon tracing from this light.
Thin Shadow
Enable thin shadow (fake colored shadows for transparent objects) and disable refraction caustics for this light. This parameter will be ignored if Trace Light Paths is enabled.
Light Samples
Specifies an override of the number of light samples to be taken for this light source. If set to something other than zero, it will override the sampling performed by the integrator. You might find need for this if you have unsolvable noise from this light and need mroe samples.
Light Group
Specify the light group name used for light group LPEs. This is useful to generate per-light AOVs for later adjustment in compositing.
Presets
RenderMan for Maya includes useful presets for specific times of day.