Directional Lights Vray 2

[rajdarge]

This setting is silly

the only way to simulate a real directional light is to set the directionality to 0.99x
the only control you have is in that third significant figure and max usually rounds that anyway.

any value below 0.99 and the effect is barely apparent.

Could you fix this please, it is unusable at present. Maybe apply a logarithm multiplier?

Raj

[racoonart]

I played with it some time now and I'm very happy the way it is, cause I came to the conclusion that about 0.75 will result in a very nice kind of light behavior, I really like it that way, it's soft but directional. Why don't you use a direct light instead? You can use VrayShadow with AreaShadows enabled

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Heya

just lil question, where is that dirrectional option thini ? Is it in Vrayplane lights ?

[rajdarge]

@ DADAL add a vray light. Under texture there is a spinner called "directional" that controlls the light. This only workd for rectangular light.

@Deadclown.
I am trying to creat a "speedlight" to simulate a studio light (I own a portraiture studio in RL). the 0.75 that you are using may be nice to look at, but it is far from controllable. I cannot use Direct or spot light because the falloff is not realistic, and the intensity bears no relationship to other Vray lights in the scene. I was hoping for consistency.

Raj

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Heya

Humh speedlight.... u mean flash light ? Can u post some pics/reference maybe I can help ya out find way around it. I'm Photographer myself.

[vlado]

Maybe apply a logarithm multiplier?

There is a logarithmic mapping already (internally the value ranges from 0.0 to infinity). Anyways, will see if we can do some thing about it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[rajdarge]

Playing with the results, the actual lighting output is very nice indeed, render times seem to be increased markedly in proportion to the degree of directionality. I will play around with the effect of applying a texture map to the light.
Its soooo much better than a 3ds max spot light.
I would like to be able to simulate the various Snoots, Grids, Barndoors, Gobos etc that I have to play with in my studio.

@DADAL : speedlight (nikon) = Speedlite (Canon) = Hotshoe flash.

I use them a lot for location shoots when I don't want to lug around a heavy studio strobe or kill someone with 240 volts near water.

If you want a clever way of using them go do www.strobist.com or read a book called "minimalist lighting"

Raj

[Neilg]

You could also build the actual light surround with geometry. Maybe inefficient, but you'll have way more control.

[rajdarge]

tried that - it WAS extremely inefficient. Worse, it introduced a lot of noise I couldn't get rid off.
plus if your using a 15degree grid, there is a LOT of redundant geometry there.