Are Spotlights Used for Iray the Same Spots Used for 3Delight ?

Fauvist

In the DAZ Studio top Menu Bar under the dropdown menu under CREATE there are a number of lights you can create - distant lights, spotlights, poiint lights.  Are any of these usable with Iray, or is there a different set of spotlights somewhere that are used for Iray?

Thanks!

nonesuch00

Yes, but you need to turn on "photometric" if they are 3DL spotlights to get them to work in iRay.

kyoto kid

...spotlights, point lights, and distant lights use photometric" settings in Iray (temperature, & lumens) and thus are a more "realistic" representation of how lighting works.  The "type" of light  is dependent on which render engine selected in the Render Settings tab.  If you are set to render in 3DL they will be the old 3DL lights (I remember reading somewhere long ago that the version of 3DL lights used in Daz are actually shaders).

As I understand, the AoA advanced lights do not work to Iray.

Fauvist

Ok, I'll turn on "photometric" if I can figure out where the setting is.  But......I'd still like to know - are there spotlights created just for Iray?

kyoto kid

...unless within an environment setting, not in Daz at least. Many jut use emissive lights but the more you have the more its lows down rendering. However without an IES profile it is hard to get an actual effect like a spotlight, electric torch, or headlamp which focuses light at a specific point produces. 

nonesuch00

Fauvist said:

Ok, I'll turn on "photometric" if I can figure out where the setting is.  But......I'd still like to know - are there spotlights created just for Iray?

Yes, that's if the render engine is iRay and you create a new spotlight it will be photometric iRay spotlight. If 3DL render engine is chosen it will be a non-photometric spotlight. Same if you create a new point light, & so on from the DAZ Studio Create menu. I believe though creating new spotlights (& other lights) from the Create menu when in OpenGL mode will get you 3DL non-photometric lights while doing the same but for the Filament engine will get you photometric iRay lights.

You can change back and forth between the 3DL non-photometric and the iRay photometric by selecting a light in the Scene tab and in the Parameters tab scrolling until you get to a toggle button that will switch back & forth between photometric or non-photometric lighting. Example: Merlin Studio's The Church Bundle includes many 3DL non-photometric lights but to work in iRay you must select each light in the scene, go to the parameters tab, scroll to the photometric button and toggle it to On.

You may want to manually adjust the lights in a scene after you switch to photometric mode in the parameters tab, and likewise switch to non-photometric, but that's personal taste mostly. Some non-photometric lights have a heavy colored tint added that you might need to account for in photometric mode in some way or another. Since those tints are artistic and not natural; photometric mode for lights doesn't give you a direct way to emulate such a light color tint in iRay.

kyoto kid

...I notice when I have the render engine selected as "Iray" in the Render Settings tab, if I click on one of hte light icons at the top of the viewport, it loads with the photometric parameters.

nonesuch00

Fauvist said:

Ok, I'll turn on "photometric" if I can figure out where the setting is.  But......I'd still like to know - are there spotlights created just for Iray?

Yes, that's if the render engine is iRay and you create a new spotlight it will be photometric iRay spotlight. If 3DL render engine is chosen it will be a non-photometric sportlight. Same if you create a new point light, & so on from the DAZ Studio Create menu. I believe though creating new sportlights (& other lights) from the Create menu when in OpenGL mode will get you 3DL non-photometric lights while doing the same but for the Filament engine will get you photometric iRay lights.

You can change back and forth between the 3DL non-photometric and the iRay photometric by selecting a light in the Scene tab and in the Parameters tab scrolling until you get to a toggle button that will switch back & forth between photometric or non-photometric lighting. Example: Merlin Studio's The Church Bundle includes many 3DL non-photometric lights but to work in iRay you must select each light in the scene, go to the parameters tab, scroll to the photometric button and toggle it to On.

You may want to manually adjust the lights in a scene after your switch to photometric mode in the parameters tab, and likewise switch to non-photometric, but that's personal taste mostly. Some non-photometric lights have a heavy colored tint added that you might need to account for in photometric mode in some way or another. Since those tints are artistic and not natural; photometric mode for lights doesn't give you a direct way to emulate such a light color tint in iRay.