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Editing parameters in the dialog will interactively alter the scene with those changes.
At any time, click the Apply button to apply the parameter edits to the light in the scene.
You can save an edited light for use in other scenes by simply dragging it onto the My Lighting user
archive.
Click OK to keep the changes made or Cancel to discard any changes made (since the last time you
clicked Apply at least).
Shadow Casting
Checking the Shadows check box in the Light Editor of a light that supports shadows (Point, distant,
spot, sky, sun, projector and goniometric) result in the selected light casting shadows in the scene.
Shadows will only be visible in photorealistic renders; unless you are using a Hardware accelerated
OpenGL 1.5 compliant graphics card, in which case you can preview Interactive Shadows. See “
Presenter Options ” for details on how to display interactive shadows and lighting.
Note:
Enabling shadows on lights should be given due consideration. If you turn on shadows on all
lights, then you may find the effect very confusing and somewhat un-natural, especially if there
are many lights in a small scene. This will also have an affect on performance, during navigation
and general refreshing of the navigation window. You may wish to consider only enabling
shadows on a few strategically positioned lights, to create the effect you require.
In addition to choosing which lights in your scene will cast shadows, you may also select which items in
the scene should cast a shadow. Each item in the scene has its own shadow casting option.
The available shadow casting options available for an item, are:
• Off. Choose this to disable shadows. The selected item will not cast a shadow from any light source.
• On. Choose this to enable shadows. The selected item will cast a shadow from any light source that
has shadows enabled.
• Inherit. Choose this to inherit the shadow casting option from the parent item. i.e. the selected item
will use the same option as the item directly above it in the Selection Tree path (see “ Selection Trees
” for more information on the selection tree and its structure). For example, if you turn shadow casting
On for a Group and the Geometry contained within that Layer is set to Inherit, then the Geometry will
cast shadows also, as it inherits the On option from its parent (the Group).
Note:
If all items in the scene are set to Inherit then the default setting is On.
To set an items shadow casting option:
• Right-click an item in the scene, click Presenter on the shortcut menu and then choose the shadow
casting option you require.
Note:
Presenter Lighting
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