Emissions

In order to use a mesh as a light source, it needs to be changed to a Diffuse materialUsed for dull, non-reflecting materials or mesh emitters. type. The Emission parameter has three different options: Blackbody, Texture, and Null/No Emission.

The following settings are listed for the Blackbody emission settings, but many of the settings are shared with the Texture emission settings. The main difference is whether the colour comes from the Blackbody temperature or from the texture settings of the diffuse material.

These values can be used to create very realistic light settings. For example, a standard 100 watt incandescent bulb would only be approximately 2.0% efficient where as a 25 watt compact fluorescent light will be 10% efficient. These will both produce around the same quantity of light in real life.

 

By Jeroen Tapper for Tapperworks