2009

When you create lights from the Create panel, photometric lights
appear as the default.
3ds Max includes the following types of photometric light objects:
Target Light (Photometric) on page 5009
Free Light (Photometric) on page 5011
mr Sky Portal on page 5186
NOTE The remainder of this topic discusses standard photometric lights, target
and free. It does not discuss the
mr Sky Portal on page 5186. Additional photometric
light types are provided as part of the Daylight system; see
Sunlight and Daylight
Systems
on page 5139.
Distribution Capabilities of Photometric Lights
You can choose how a photometric light is distributed. This can model how
the light is generated and how it is mounted. There are four options:
■ Uniform Spherical on page 5025
■ Uniform Diffuse on page 5026
■ Spotlight on page 5027
■ Photometric Web on page 5028
The drop-down list that lets you choose the distribution type appears on the
General Parameters rollout on page 5019 for photometric lights. In viewports,
Uniform distribution is represented by a small sphere (the position of the
sphere indicates whether the distribution is Spherical or Hemispherical),
Spotlight distribution is represented by a cone, and Web distribution is
represented as the shape of the web.
5006 | Chapter 18 Lights and Cameras