light.dat update

[Steffen]

Hi,

light.dat is a special file inside our \PARTS folder for placing a light source.
In later steps, for example rendering, these can be replaced by light sources.

Historically, that file was POV-Ray specific.
I removed that because light sources can be used anywhere, e.g. in Blender etc.

While being at it, I replaced the previous implementation (6 edges mimicing light rays)
by 2 spheres and more light rays:

http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cg.../light.dat

If you do not like that change, we can abandon it.
However, I wanted to drop it onto the PT to let you see it and get your comments on how useful that would be.

best
Steffen

[Roland Melkert]

http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cg.../light.dat

Just my thoughts:

- Why 2 spheres you can only see one.
- It seems a bit big to me.
- Will there also be a directional light part? Of which the neg Y direction can be used to point parallel light sources.

[Travis Cobbs]

http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cg.../light.dat

Just my thoughts:

- Why 2 spheres you can only see one.
- It seems a bit big to me.
- Will there also be a directional light part? Of which the neg Y direction can be used to point parallel light sources.

I agree with the first two points above. I don't disagree with the third point, but feel that talking about that here would hijack the thread that was created for a different purpose.

In addition to those two points, I think if light.dat is going to be more physical like this, then using color 24 for the lines might not make the most amount of sense. They then disappear (at least in LDView) when edge lines are disabled. Also, setting the light's color to be a transparent color makes the small inner sphere visible, but it looks really strange when that is done, and it doesn't seem to make any sense to do that.

[Michael Horvath]

Hi,

light.dat is a special file inside our \PARTS folder for placing a light source.
In later steps, for example rendering, these can be replaced by light sources.

Historically, that file was POV-Ray specific.
I removed that because light sources can be used anywhere, e.g. in Blender etc.

While being at it, I replaced the previous implementation (6 edges mimicing light rays)
by 2 spheres and more light rays:

http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cg.../light.dat

If you do not like that change, we can abandon it.
However, I wanted to drop it onto the PT to let you see it and get your comments on how useful that would be.

best
Steffen

I saved the file to my desktop and could not see anything when opening the file in LDView or MLCAD. There seems to be nothing inside the file except comments.

Also, in POV-Ray you really need a "point_at" statement to go with a light source. This is important when using spotlights or even parallel lights.

http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Light_Source



Mike