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IES Texture

An IESAn IES light is the lighting information representing the real-world lighting values for specific light fixtures. For more information, visit http://www.ies.org/lighting/. light is the lighting information representing the real-world lighting values for specific light fixtures.
Using an IES light profile texture geometry can be shaded to behave like a physical light in the scene.
For more information, visit http://www.ies.org/lighting/.

To use an IES light source in the ArchiCAD plugin:

  1. Create the geometry for the emitting object in the scene and add a material for it through the MaterialThe representation of the surface or volume properties of an object. Tab.
  2. On the DiffuseAmount of diffusion, or the reflection of light photons at different angles from an uneven or granular surface. Used for dull, non-reflecting materials or mesh emitters. Material, click on the emission property and select an Black BodyAn opaque object that emits thermal radiation. In Octane, this is used to designate illumination properties for mesh emitters. or Texture Emission Node. The section on EmissionsThe process by which a Black body or Texture is used to emit light from a surface. in this plugin manual discusses more to differentiate emission nodes.
  3. Add a Greyscale Image Texture and connect this to the Distribution pin of the emission node.
  4. Now add an IES file to the Greyscale Image Texture node.
  5. Add a Projection for the Distribution and set the Coordinate Space attribute to Local or World Space. (When setting to Normal space the light will shine from all directions instead of using the IES properly)
  6. To control the distribution of the IES light, add a Transform Node to the Plane Transformation.
  7. Adjust the Emission properties via the Material Tab. For a definition of these settings, refer to the section on Emissions in this plugin manual.

Note: A Color for the distributed light may also be specified by adding an RGB Color Texture or RGB Image Texture as the Texture of the Emission.

The next example shows 4 different setups all using the IES file for the Distribution node.

← IES file used for the setup

From left to right:

  1. Black Body Emission with Temperature set to 2930 for the light color.


  2. Texture Emission with RGB Image used for light color. Note: in the example the RGB image is also used for the Diffuse node to show how it is used in the Distribution node.


  3. Texture Emission with RGB Color used for light color.


  4. The same as previous and but with Rotation in Distribution node and Opacity 0.

Figure above shows IES Emission with different Temperature: 1500/4500/7500/12000.
(See Black Body Emission for more about Temperature.)

The figure above shows the results orderly of the different IES file used (see figures below).
Note: On the internet you can find IES free downloads.

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