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Attenuation
In the real world, the intensity of light diminishes over distance. Objects far
from the light source appear darker than objects near the source. This effect
is known as attenuation. Attenuation is available under standard lighting
workflow only. Under the Attenuation panel the following property settings
are available:
Type Controls how light diminishes over distance. The farther away an object
is from a spotlight, the darker the object appears. Attenuation is also known
as decay.
 Inverse Linear (Standard lights only). Sets attenuation to be the inverse of
the linear distance from the light. For example, at a distance of 2 units,
light is half as strong as at the point light; at a distance of 4 units, light is
one quarter as strong. The default value for inverse linear is half the
maximum intensity.
 Inverse Square (Photometric lights). Sets attenuation to be the inverse of
the square of the distance from the light. For example, at a distance of 2
units, light is one quarter as strong as at the spotlight; at a distance of 4
units, light is one sixteenth as strong.
 None (Standard lights only). Sets no attenuation. Objects far from the
point light are as bright as objects close to the light.
Use Limits Specifies whether to use limits. The default is No. (Standard lights
only)
Rendered Shadow Details
Under the Rendered Shadow Details panel, the following property settings
are available:
Type Specifies the type of shadow cast by the light.
 Soft (shadow map). Sets the type to Soft. This selection activates additional
options for Map size and Softness.
 Sharp (default). Sets the rendered shadow to sharp.
 Soft (sampled). Sets attenuation to be the inverse of the square of the
distance from the light. For example, at a distance of 2 units, light is one
quarter as strong as at the spotlight; at a distance of 4 units, light is one
sixteenth as strong.
Map Size Specifies the size of the shadow map. (Soft shadow map type only)
Softness Specifies the softness or fuzziness of the shadow-mapped shadow.
(Soft shadow map type only)
852 | Chapter 2 Commands