Tweet
This may be a dumb question but I always wondered this...what is the difference between the linear, inverse, and inverse square decays for an omni light? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
-
-
Re: Omni Light Question?
If you want decay, then inverse square it's the way to go, because this way decay works in real life. This it's physically correct option. Explanation:
"normally the light intensity is inversely
proprtional to the square of the distance from the light
(surfaces that are farther from the light are darker than
surfaces which are closer to the light)." -
Re: Omni Light Question?
Oh ok... i did not know that. I tried plating with that in conjunction with IES lights but the multipliers are fairly different when you change the light to inverse or linear. I kept the same multiplier that worked for inverse, but i cant remember which did which, but with the same multiplier either inverse sqare or linear was too bright or not bright enough. I guess you need to just adjust the multiplie...correct?
Comment
-
Re: Omni Light Question?
Well...yea. Basically decay is saying that the farther away you are from the light, the dimmer it is. Linear is no decay, so the light is the same intensity no matter where you are. Inverse basically says that the intensity is the base intensity times 1 over the distance away. That will generally lead to a relatively consistent decay as you get farther away from the light. Inverse Square will have the resulting intensity be the base intensity times 1 over the distance squared. That means that as you get farther away the intensity will decrease even further...as Stefan said, Inverse Square is the physically correct decay, although I've used Inverse in interior situations before...below is a little math so you can get some numbers sorry to bring the day down ;D
Base Intensity = 50 ... Test distance 10 units
Linear
Its 50 everywhere
Inverse
50 * 1/10 = 5
Inverse square
50 * 1/(10^2) = .5
There's a visual example in the SU Lighting Tutorial in the tutorial section as well.Damien Alomar<br />Generally Cool DudeComment
Comment