Geometry & 3D node
Light
One light inside a 3D Scene — a real node, so an LFO can swing it and audio can breathe it. Directional shines the same way everywhere (Direction X/Y/Z is the way it points); Point sits at a place and radiates all around, fading over Range; Spot throws a cone from its Position along its Direction, opened by Cone Angle — a stage lamp. The first Light child replaces the scene's built-in light; up to four act together. Casts Shadows is ON by default, because that is what light does: it stops at things — a light with it off shines straight through every mesh. A Point light throws its omni shadow from a six-face cube; Shadow Softness widens the penumbra from razor-crisp to soft. A scene has TWO shadow slots — the first two casting lights take them; the settings panel shows who holds what.
Inputs
| Port | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| EnableOff removes this light from the scene; the others carry on. | bool | true |
| TypeDirectional shines the same way everywhere, like the sun; Point sits at a place and radiates in every direction, fading over Range; Spot sits at a place and throws a cone the way a stage lamp does — aim it with Direction, open it with Cone Angle. | int | 0 |
| ColorThe light's colour; its alpha multiplies into the intensity. | color | — |
| IntensityHow strong the light is. 1 reads as “fully lit” on a white surface. | float | 1 |
| Direction XThe way a Directional light shines — X part. Only the direction counts, not the length. | float | -0.4 |
| Direction YThe way it shines, Y part. −1 shines straight down. | float | -1 |
| Direction ZThe way it shines, Z part. | float | -0.6 |
| Position XWhere a Point light sits, left-right. | float | 0 |
| Position YWhere a Point light sits, up-down. | float | 1 |
| Position ZWhere a Point light sits, near-far. | float | 1 |
| RangeHow far a Point light reaches before fading to nothing. | float | 3 |
| Cone AngleSpot only: the full opening of the beam, in degrees. The rim is soft — the last fifth of the angle fades out. | float | 35 |
| Casts ShadowsON by default: light stops at meshes, the way light does. OFF shines straight through everything — no mesh flag can block a light with no shadow map. A scene has TWO shadow slots, first come, first served; a refused light shows a red ✕ on its gizmo and the settings say who holds the slots. | bool | true |
| Shadow SoftnessThe penumbra: 0 is a razor edge, 1 a wide soft falloff — for Directional and Spot a real Gaussian blur of the shadow map, smooth and grain-free. A Point light softens with jittered taps instead, so its penumbra stays modest. Softness blurs the shadow's edge, not the scene. | float | 0.3 |
| ShowDraws the light's gizmo: arrows through a sun disc for Directional, a sunburst with Range rings for Point, a cone for Spot. An X-in-circle tells the shadow truth — AMBER: Casts Shadows is off; RED: every slot is taken. Grab handles move and aim the light; a cabled axis draws grey and refuses the grab. | bool | false |
How It Works
Light is one light inside a 3D Scene — a real node, so an LFO can swing it and audio can breathe it.
- Directional shines the same way everywhere; Direction X/Y/Z is the way it points.
- Point sits at a place and radiates all around, fading over Range.
- Spot throws a cone from its Position along its Direction, opened by Cone Angle — a stage lamp.
The first Light child replaces the scene's built-in light; up to four act together. Casts Shadows is on by default, because that is what light does: it stops at things — a light with it off shines straight through every mesh.
A Point light throws its omni shadow from a six-face cube. Shadow Softness widens the penumbra from razor-crisp to soft, as real penumbra rather than dithered grain. A scene has two shadow slots: the first two casting lights take them, and the settings panel shows who holds what. Show draws a gizmo that explains itself, with grab handles that move and aim the light while the ports follow.
Use Cases
- Key, fill and rim — Three directional lights is the classic setup and costs almost nothing.
- A stage lamp — Spot with a tight cone and soft shadows, aimed by hand with the gizmo.
- Light shafts — A spot through 3D Particles: dust goes dark where the shaft is blocked.
- Audio-reactive lighting — Band levels into Intensity, or a beat into a colour.
- Practical lights — A Point light inside an emissive mesh so the object appears to glow and to illuminate.
Tips
- Only two lights can cast shadows. Decide which two, and turn Casts Shadows off on the others — the gizmos will tell you who was refused.
- A point light's shadow costs six faces. Prefer a spot when the light does not really need to shine backwards.
- Turn Show on while placing, off when performing.
- Shadow Softness interacts with Shadow Quality: a soft shadow at 512 texels will be blotchy.
- A light with Casts Shadows off shines through walls. That is sometimes exactly what a fill light should do.
Open Light in the interactive catalog →
Light is one of 381 nodes in Grafit Pro.
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