Distant Light Window

Select View > Distant Light or click the Light tab of the Aggregate Window to open the Distant Light Window. The Distant Light Window is used to specify various settings for distant lights, including position, intensity, and color.
Sun and Physical Sky settings are only available in Shade3D Standard and Professional.

Basic Settings

Preview: The preview shows the direction, intensity, color, and ambient light settings as they would appear on a sphere at the origin.
View: Use the View radio buttons to switch between different angles from which the sphere in the preview is shown. Select Right, Top, Front, or Pers (for Perspective View).
Load...: Opens a dialog for selecting a Distant Light Settings file (.shddlt, .xmlshddlt) to load, for applying previously-saved settings.
Save...: Saves the current Distant Light Window settings as a Distant Light Settings file (.shddlt, .xmlshddlt).
Info: When a plugin with custom distant light attributes is installed, click this button to display the custom attributes.
Show Specular: Specular highlights are displayed on a black sphere in the preview. This can make it easier to grasp the direction of the distant light.
Show All: All distant lights are shown in the preview.
When unselected, only the selected distant light is shown.
Distant Light Index: The index of the distant light. To change settings for a different distant light, select a different index. A checkmark is displayed next to distant lights with either intensity or glare set. Select New Distant Light to add a new distant light to the scene.
Distant Light Color: The color of the selected distant light.
Move Layer Buttons: Clicking will move the selected distant light up one layer.
Clicking will move the selected distant light down one layer.
Duplicate Layer: Clicking will copy the selected distant light layer. The new layer is added at the bottom.
Delete Layer: Clicking will delete the selected distant light layer.
Intensity: The intensity (brightness) of the selected distant light. When the distant light's intensity is set to 1 and its color is set to white (1,1,1), an object surface perpendicular to the distant light will have a color equal to its diffuse color.
lx: Calculates the distant light intensity in lx (lux) units.
Ambient: The ambient light of the selected distant light.

Direction Hemispheres

The direction hemispheres show the orientation of the selected distant light. The hemispheres show the position of the distant light, viewed from outside the simulated celestial sphere.

Left Hemisphere: The hemisphere on the left represents the hemisphere seen from the direction specified by the View radio buttons. For example, when Front is selected from the View radio buttons, positioning the dot in the center of the left hemisphere means that the distant light is coming from the positive Z axis direction.
Right Hemisphere: The hemisphere on the right represents the hemisphere seen from the direction opposite of that specified by the View radio buttons. In other words, when Front is selected from the View radio buttons, positioning the dot in the center of the right hemisphere means that the distant light is coming from the negative Z axis direction.

Miscellaneous Settings

Shadow: The depth (density) of shadows cast by the selected distant light when rendered using ray tracing. When set to 0, shadows are not calculated, speeding up rendering time.
Shadow Color: The color of shadows cast by the selected distant light when rendered using ray tracing.
Softness: The softness of the outline of shadows cast by the selected distant light when rendered.
In Shade3D Basic and Standard, to render Softness use the path tracing rendering method. In Shade3D Professional, both path tracing and ray tracing support Softness.
Quality: Specifies the quality as a ratio of the ray tracing quality in the Rendering Settings.
See also Light Quality
Specular: The degree that the intensity of the distant light influences objects' Specular highlights. When set to 0, the distant light does not affect objects' Specular highlights.
Diffuse: The degree that the intensity of the distant light influences an object's diffuse color. When set to 0, the distant light does not affect diffuse color.
Glare: The amount of glare simulated in the direction of the distant light. If the Render Background checkbox (on the Basics tab of the Rendering Settings) is unselected, Glare is not rendered.
Size: The size (spread) of the glare of the distant light. The camera focal length affects the glare size. Shorter focal lengths result in smaller glare size.
Skylight: The amount of skylight used in the radiosity calculation.
Skylight Color: The color of the skylight.
Fog: The amount of fog in the scene.
Fog Color: The color of the fog.

Shadow Map Settings

Shadow Type

Use this menu to select the method of calculating and drawing shadows cast by the distant light when rendering with ray tracing, ray tracing (draft), or path tracing.

Inherit: Inherits the Shadow Type setting from the Rendering Settings Basics Tab.
Ray Tracing: Always calculates and draws shadows using ray tracing.
Shadow Map: Always draws shadows using shadow maps.

Size

Select the checkbox to enter a different Size value in the text box. A larger shadow map will render shadow outlines more clearly but requires more memory. If the shadow map is too small, shadows may appear jagged.
When this checkbox is unselected, the value will be inherited from the Rendering Settings. A value of 0 will result in a shadow map not being created.

Bias

Select the checkbox to enter a different Bias value in the text box. If the object receiving the shadow map is not parallel, part of the shadow may not be displayed. Changing the shadow map bias value can help fix this.
When this checkbox is unselected, the value will be inherited from the Rendering Settings.

Blur

Select the checkbox to enter a different shadow map Blur value in the text box.
When this checkbox is unselected, the value will be inherited from the Rendering Settings.

Sun Settings

By entering the latitude and longitude of a physical location, the distant light can simulate sunlight for a specific date and time. The movement of the "sun" can also be animated by specifying a start and end time. Sun settings can only be applied to the first distant light (the first layer).
By combining this with Physical Sky settings, the background can be updated automatically according to the specified time, simulating sunrise, blue sky, and sunset.

Enable: When selected, real world sun calucations are applied to the distant light. Locale, Date Time, and Animation settings become available. When sun settings are enabled, the direction hemispheres cannot be used to position the distant light.

Locale Settings

Locale

Many major cities are available as presets. Select one from this menu to use that location.
New, custom presets can also be added by changing the Locale settings and then selecting Add from the Locale pop-up menu.

UTC

The timezone based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The default is UTC + 9, corresponding to Japan's timezone.

Lat/Lng

The degrees latitude (-90 to +90) and longitude (-180 to +180).
North and east latitude are positive values. For example, to set the coordinates to 37.75634N, 122.49177W (in San Francisco, California), enter 37.75634 for the latitude and -122.49177 for the longitude.
Coordinates use the decimal system. If the coordinates are in degrees/minutes/seconds, such as 45°29′13″N, 122°48′13″W (Beaverton, Oregon), divide the minutes by 60 and the seconds by 3600 (60 * 60). 45°29′13″N is equivalent to 45.486944, and 122°48′13″W is equivalent to -122.803611.

North

Sets the direction of true north in the scene.
The positive Y direction points toward the zenith; -Z points north; +Z points south; -X points west, and +X points east. True north can be defined by an azimuth (between -180 and +180 degrees) from the -Z axis (rotated about the Y axis).
Moving the slider displays a virtual compass in the Top View of the Figure Window.
Adjusting the direction of true north affects the direction of the sun and sky pattern when using Physical Sky.

Memory: Memorizes the current true north setting.
An open line with length of 1000mm is created in this direction, with the origin at its center. Select this open line and click Restore to return to the memorized true north setting.
Restore: If the true north setting has been previously memorized, select the open line and click Restore to return to the memorized true north setting.

Date Time Settings

Hour Clock: Select 24-hour clock, 12-hour clock (AM), or 12-hour clock (PM).
When 24-hour clock is selected, enter a value between 0 and 23. For 12-hour clock (AM), enter 0 to 11 for morning hours and for 12-hour clock (PM), enter 0 - 11 for afternoon and evening hours.
You can set the default time display to 24-hour clock on the View tab of the Preferences Dialog.
Date: To specify a date, select the month and date from the pop-up menus or enter a value in the text boxes.
Time: To specify a time, select the hour, minutes, and seconds from the pop-up menus or enter a value in the text boxes.
Acceptable values depend on the hour clock specified.
Now: Sets the date and time to the current time settings of your computer.

Animation Settings

Enable: When selected, the sun settings can be animated, simulating the movement of the sun across the sky for the specified time.
The Date Time settings are used for the first frame of the animation, and the Animation settings are used for the last frame.

Physical Sky Settings

Physical Sky enables you to automatically generate the Background Upper Base Color based on the distant light direction and color settings. By combining this with the sun settings, the distant light color can be automatically calculated as well.

Enable: When selected, a sky pattern is used for the Background Upper Base Color based on the time, date and locale. When enabled, the Upper Base Color in the Background Window cannot be modified.
Light Color: When selected, the sunlight color, calculated from the light direction, is used as the color of the first distant light.
Background Auto Color: When selected, the Background Window's Lower Base Color and Cloud and Haze layer settings are corrected according to the angle of the setting sun. As the sun goes down below the horizon, the sky is adjusted to appear darker.
Intensity: The brightness of the sky. Lowering this value mutes the background; raising it makes it brighter.
Since our eyes naturally adjust to the different light levels of day and night, the intensity setting should be adjusted for day versus evening or early morning times.
Intensity does not affect the calculation of the color of the distant light when the Light Color checkbox is selected.
Gamma: Sets the inverted gamma value of the Background and Light Color.
Select from Linear(1.0), Monitor(1.0/2.2) or select Numeric to enter a custom value in the text box.
Turbidity: The degree of haziness and cloudiness of the atmosphere.
Smaller values result in less brilliant sunsets, but can reduce excessive white light around the sun when rendering daylight.
The turbidity value affects the calculation of the color of the distant light when the Light Color checkbox is selected.