Lighting
This chapter covers:
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Definition
Illumination in Patchwork 3D Design is provided by light sources. These light sources can be any of various types: sky, spot, omni, sun or area. Light sources of all types are grouped into lighting layers, which can be combined to create complex illumination set-ups. The set of visible layers and their coverage provides a total illumination set-up which is used to calculate lightmaps.
Lighting is managed in the 
Lighting tab of the Shaper sidebar. At each level — light sources, lighting layers, and full illumination set-up — settings are available to adjust the lighting properties.
Type of illumination rendering
The render configuration settings apply to the entire illumination set-up. They take into account all of the lights and layers, and their properties, including visibility and activation.
In the Rendering zone, you can set the type of lighting:
The type of rendering that is chosen will also be applied in Matter, except in the case of Preview mode, which will be replaced with Environment.
Type-specific settings are available below the Type of lighting list for the chosen lighting type.
Preview Mode
When the Preview mode is selected, the following options can be enabled or disabled:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Interactive degradation | When enabled, this option pauses the calculation when the object is being manipulated in the Ctrl+left mouse button and middle mouse button operating modes. |
| Restrict to shadow integrity | When enabled, this option restricts the calculation of Preview illumination depending upon the selected shadow integrity mode. |
| Preview color | When enabled, the preview takes the light sources' colors into account. When disabled, the preview is shown in grayscale. |
| Preview bounded attenuation | When enabled, the attenuation gizmo indicates the full effect and falloff distances. The surface parts illuminated without light attenuation are displayed in red. The surface parts illuminated with light attenuation are displayed in pink. |
The default shadowmap size provided in the application settings is used for the preview mode.
Calculating Lightmaps
When at least one of the visible lighting layers is a lightmap, the lightmap must be calculated before the illumination will be visible.
Select the Lightmap mode. Choose the layers and the surfaces for which lightmaps should be calculated, then use the rendering buttons to render the lightmaps.
Filtering Layers
The Layers filter specifies which layer or layers to take into account when calculating lightmaps.
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
| All | Lightmaps will be calculated for all of the layers. |
| Visible | Only the lightmaps for the layers that are visible in the current configuration will be calculated. |
| Active | The lightmap for the active layer will be calculated, even if this lighting is not visible. The active layer is the layer that is currently selected. If multiple layers are selected, the active layer is the layer bordered by a dotted line in the Layers list. |
Filtering Surfaces
The Surfaces filter allows you to restrict the surfaces for which lightmaps will be calculated.
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
| All | Lightmaps will be rendered for all surfaces. |
| Selected | Select surfaces directly in the 3D product view from the Lighting tab of Shaper. Direct surface selection saves time as it is not necessary to switch to the Surface tab to select a surface requiring a lightmap computation. The selected surfaces for which lightmaps will be calculated will be highlighted in green. |
| Unlit | Lightmaps will be rendered only for surfaces for which no lightmap has been calculated yet. |
Setting the Render Quality
A slider allows you to determine the speed at which lightmaps are calculated by setting the balance between speed and precision. The default slider position (50) sets an advantageous rendering speed that preserves global lightmap quality in most contexts.
You can modify this setting by moving the slider towards one of the extremes:
| Rendering quality | Description |
|---|---|
| Faster |
Rendering speed is increased. The precision of the lightmaps created by this calculation is decreased. |
| More accurate |
Priority is given to the precision of the lightmaps being calculated. This calculation takes longer to carry out. |
Launching a Lightmap Render
Two render calculation modes exist:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Start Local Rendering | Use this option to calculate lightmaps using your computer's resources. |
| Start Distributed Rendering | Use this option to calculate lightmaps using the resources of a network of computers running Patchwork Lightmap Render. More information on distributed rendering can be found in the chapter Distributed Lightmap Rendering. |
The option Show while rendering allows you to visualize the result of the calculation before the calculation has been completed. When this option is enabled, as soon as the lightmap for a surface is calculated, it is shown in the viewport. Surfaces for which the lightmap has not yet been calculated are displayed in red.
If you are calculating lightmaps for multiple layers, the display will switch to the layer for which lighting is being calculated if Show while rendering is checked.
Options for Existing Lightmaps
Once a lightmap has been calculated, you can:
| Operation | Description |
|---|---|
| Update | Update the lightmap to view the lightmap in a different lightmap format. |
| Export | Export the lightmap as a series of image files. |
| Remove | Remove the lightmap. This deletes the lightmap completely. A deleted lightmap can be recalculated from scratch but cannot be restored. |
