Light Influencing Bounds

A light's illumination is bounded to a region of influence

• Shapes within the region may be lit by the light

• Light bounding:

  • Enables controlled lighting in large scenes

  • Avoids over-lighting a scene when using multiple lights

  • Saves lighting computation time

A light region of influence is a bounded volume:

• Sphere, box, polytope, or combination using Bounds

• To make a global light, use a huge bounding sphere

• By default, lights have no influencing bounds and illuminate nothing!

  • Common error: forgetting to set influencing bounds

A light bounding volume can be relative to:

• The light's coordinate system

• A Bounding leaf's coordinate system

eScience