Skip to content
RED+
Contents

Lighting

Spot Lights

A spot light lights a cone around the direction it points. A spot light whose cone is wider than 180 degrees lights everything within its range except a cone behind it, in the bake and in the game. RED+ draws such a light the way it lights: as its range, with the unlit cone behind it in red.

The cone

Set the cone in the Spotlight Field Of View (FOV) group of Light Properties.

  • FOV is the full width of the cone, in degrees, around the direction the light points. Inside it the light is at full strength.
  • FOV Dropoff adds a band outside the FOV where the light fades out. The light gives no light beyond FOV plus FOV Dropoff.
  • Range limits how far the light reaches, as for any light.

Spot lights wider than 180 degrees

When FOV plus FOV Dropoff is over 180 degrees, the cone opens past the sides of the light and wraps round behind it. The light then lights everything within its Range except a cone behind it, centred on the opposite of the direction it points.

That unlit cone is 360 degrees minus the sum of FOV and FOV Dropoff across. A spot light with an FOV of 325 and no FOV Dropoff lights everything except a cone 35 degrees across at its back.

The bake and the game both light such a light this way. For how RED+ works out the shadows of spot, point and tube lights, see How RED+ bakes lighting and Bake accuracy.

How RED+ draws a spot light

RED draws a spot light's range as two cones: the FOV in yellow and FOV plus FOV Dropoff in dark yellow. It draws them when the light is the only object selected, when its Always Show Range box is ticked, and while Light Properties is open for it. While Light Properties is open, the drawing follows the values in the dialog.

A cone wider than 180 degrees opens behind the light, and RED draws it as a narrow cone pointing backwards. RED+ draws such a cone as:

  • the light's Range as a sphere, in the cone's own colour, because the light reaches all round, and
  • the cone behind the light that it does not reach, in red.

A cone of 180 degrees or less is drawn as RED draws it.

  • With an FOV of 180 or less and FOV plus FOV Dropoff over 180, only the dark yellow cone becomes a sphere. The red cone is where the light gives no light.
  • With an FOV over 180, both cones become spheres, each with its red cone (one cone when FOV Dropoff is 0). The light gives no light inside the narrower red cone, and fades out between the two.

The first time RED+ draws such a light in a session, the log has a line containing [RF+ Spot] a spot cone wider than 180 degrees, with the cone's width, the range and the width of the unlit cone.

A command-line switch keeps RED's drawing.

Light Properties

RED+ also changes Light Properties, for every type of light:

  • It shows the light state and flicker controls that RED's own dialog hides, among them Initial Light State, Off Intensity, Fade and the Light Brightness & Flicker group with the On and Off times. Follow lights uses them.
  • It hides Runtime Shadows. Nothing in Red Faction, Dash Faction or Alpine Faction uses it, and each light keeps the value it already has.
  • It adds the Light Cookie (RED+) group at the bottom. See Light cookies.
  • While Light Properties is open, RED+ redraws the viewports when a value in the dialog changes, and otherwise once a second.