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jdent02 edited this page Jan 28, 2016 · 6 revisions

#Overview
PRMan has several different lamp types, each one geared towards a specific use.

##Lamp Type
Area Lamp: This lamp is one of the main workhorses of PRMan. It adds in a lamp that emits light over a surface that is defined by the 'shape' selection boxes in the Blender light object tab. Please note that due to Blender limitations, all area lights are displayed as a square/rectangle in the 3D view.

  • Rectangular: The light is a 2D rectangular shape with dimensions set by the sizeX and sizeY parameters.
  • Disk: The light is a 2D circular disk with the radius set by the radius parameter.
  • Sphere: The light is a 3D sphere with the radius set by the radius parameter.
  • Cylindrical: The light is a 3D cylinder with the radius and length set by the radius and length parameters.

Spot: This lamp is a classic spotlight shape. The cone angle and inner cone penumbra are set using the angle and blend settings in the blender light object tab.

Distant: This lamp is the equivalent of Cycles sun lamp. it sends parallel light rays into a scene from an infinitely far distance away. Useful for simulating sunlight.

Point: PRMan has no true point light, so this setting is mainly for maintaining compatibility with pre existing Blender projects. It creates a very small invisible sphere light in the scene.

Environment: This light surrounds the scene and illuminates it from an infinitely far distance away. It can either have a solid color or a lat-long environment map driving the illumination. See Light Shaders for more information

Sky: This creates a realistic clear sky background with an integrated sun light source. See Light Shaders for more information