Table of Contents

Class Light3D

Provides a base class for different kinds of light nodes.

Inheritance
Light3D
Derived

Remarks

Light3D is the abstract base class for light nodes. As it can't be instantiated, it shouldn't be used directly. Other types of light nodes inherit from it. Light3D contains the common variables and parameters used for lighting.

See Also

3D lights and shadows
Faking global illumination
Third Person Shooter (TPS) Demo

Properties

distance_fade_begin

The distance from the camera at which the light begins to fade away (in 3D units).

Note: Only effective for OmniLight3D and SpotLight3D.

var distance_fade_begin : float = 40.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_distance_fade_begin(float value)
  • float get_distance_fade_begin

distance_fade_enabled

If true, the light will smoothly fade away when far from the active Camera3D starting at distance_fade_begin. This acts as a form of level of detail (LOD). The light will fade out over distance_fade_begin + distance_fade_length, after which it will be culled and not sent to the shader at all. Use this to reduce the number of active lights in a scene and thus improve performance.

Note: Only effective for OmniLight3D and SpotLight3D.

var distance_fade_enabled : bool = false

Property Value

bool

Remarks

  • void set_enable_distance_fade(bool value)
  • bool is_distance_fade_enabled

distance_fade_length

Distance over which the light and its shadow fades. The light's energy and shadow's opacity is progressively reduced over this distance and is completely invisible at the end.

Note: Only effective for OmniLight3D and SpotLight3D.

var distance_fade_length : float = 10.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_distance_fade_length(float value)
  • float get_distance_fade_length

distance_fade_shadow

The distance from the camera at which the light's shadow cuts off (in 3D units). Set this to a value lower than distance_fade_begin + distance_fade_length to further improve performance, as shadow rendering is often more expensive than light rendering itself.

Note: Only effective for OmniLight3D and SpotLight3D, and only when shadow_enabled is true.

var distance_fade_shadow : float = 50.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_distance_fade_shadow(float value)
  • float get_distance_fade_shadow

editor_only

If true, the light only appears in the editor and will not be visible at runtime. If true, the light will never be baked in LightmapGI regardless of its light_bake_mode.

var editor_only : bool = false

Property Value

bool

Remarks

  • void set_editor_only(bool value)
  • bool is_editor_only

light_angular_distance

The light's angular size in degrees. Increasing this will make shadows softer at greater distances (also called percentage-closer soft shadows, or PCSS). Only available for DirectionalLight3Ds. For reference, the Sun from the Earth is approximately 0.5. Increasing this value above 0.0 for lights with shadows enabled will have a noticeable performance cost due to PCSS.

Note: light_angular_distance is not affected by scale (the light's scale or its parent's scale).

Note: PCSS for directional lights is only supported in the Forward+ rendering method, not Mobile or Compatibility.

var light_angular_distance : float = 0.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

light_bake_mode

The light's bake mode. This will affect the global illumination techniques that have an effect on the light's rendering. See BakeMode.

Note: Meshes' global illumination mode will also affect the global illumination rendering. See gi_mode.

var light_bake_mode : int = 2

Property Value

int

Remarks

  • void set_bake_mode(int value)
  • int get_bake_mode

light_color

The light's color. An overbright color can be used to achieve a result equivalent to increasing the light's light_energy.

var light_color : Color = Color(1, 1, 1, 1)

Property Value

Color

Remarks

light_cull_mask

The light will affect objects in the selected layers.

var light_cull_mask : int = 4294967295

Property Value

int

Remarks

  • void set_cull_mask(int value)
  • int get_cull_mask

light_energy

The light's strength multiplier (this is not a physical unit). For OmniLight3D and SpotLight3D, changing this value will only change the light color's intensity, not the light's radius.

var light_energy : float = 1.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

light_indirect_energy

Secondary multiplier used with indirect light (light bounces). Used with VoxelGI and SDFGI (see sdfgi_enabled).

Note: This property is ignored if light_energy is equal to 0.0, as the light won't be present at all in the GI shader.

var light_indirect_energy : float = 1.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

light_intensity_lumens

Used by positional lights (OmniLight3D and SpotLight3D) when rendering/lights_and_shadows/use_physical_light_units is true. Sets the intensity of the light source measured in Lumens. Lumens are a measure of luminous flux, which is the total amount of visible light emitted by a light source per unit of time.

For SpotLight3Ds, we assume that the area outside the visible cone is surrounded by a perfect light absorbing material. Accordingly, the apparent brightness of the cone area does not change as the cone increases and decreases in size.

A typical household lightbulb can range from around 600 lumens to 1,200 lumens, a candle is about 13 lumens, while a streetlight can be approximately 60,000 lumens.

var light_intensity_lumens : float

Property Value

float

Remarks

light_intensity_lux

Used by DirectionalLight3Ds when rendering/lights_and_shadows/use_physical_light_units is true. Sets the intensity of the light source measured in Lux. Lux is a measure of luminous flux per unit area, it is equal to one lumen per square meter. Lux is the measure of how much light hits a surface at a given time.

On a clear sunny day a surface in direct sunlight may be approximately 100,000 lux, a typical room in a home may be approximately 50 lux, while the moonlit ground may be approximately 0.1 lux.

var light_intensity_lux : float

Property Value

float

Remarks

light_negative

If true, the light's effect is reversed, darkening areas and casting bright shadows.

var light_negative : bool = false

Property Value

bool

Remarks

  • void set_negative(bool value)
  • bool is_negative

light_projector

Texture2D projected by light. shadow_enabled must be on for the projector to work. Light projectors make the light appear as if it is shining through a colored but transparent object, almost like light shining through stained-glass.

Note: Unlike BaseMaterial3D whose filter mode can be adjusted on a per-material basis, the filter mode for light projector textures is set globally with rendering/textures/light_projectors/filter.

Note: Light projector textures are only supported in the Forward+ and Mobile rendering methods, not Compatibility.

var light_projector : Texture2D

Property Value

Texture2D

Remarks

light_size

The size of the light in Godot units. Only available for OmniLight3Ds and SpotLight3Ds. Increasing this value will make the light fade out slower and shadows appear blurrier (also called percentage-closer soft shadows, or PCSS). This can be used to simulate area lights to an extent. Increasing this value above 0.0 for lights with shadows enabled will have a noticeable performance cost due to PCSS.

Note: light_size is not affected by scale (the light's scale or its parent's scale).

Note: PCSS for positional lights is only supported in the Forward+ and Mobile rendering methods, not Compatibility.

var light_size : float = 0.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

light_specular

The intensity of the specular blob in objects affected by the light. At 0, the light becomes a pure diffuse light. When not baking emission, this can be used to avoid unrealistic reflections when placing lights above an emissive surface.

var light_specular : float = 1.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

light_temperature

Sets the color temperature of the light source, measured in Kelvin. This is used to calculate a correlated color temperature which tints the light_color.

The sun on a cloudy day is approximately 6500 Kelvin, on a clear day it is between 5500 to 6000 Kelvin, and on a clear day at sunrise or sunset it ranges to around 1850 Kelvin.

var light_temperature : float

Property Value

float

Remarks

  • void set_temperature(float value)
  • float get_temperature

light_volumetric_fog_energy

Secondary multiplier multiplied with light_energy then used with the Environment's volumetric fog (if enabled). If set to 0.0, computing volumetric fog will be skipped for this light, which can improve performance for large amounts of lights when volumetric fog is enabled.

Note: To prevent short-lived dynamic light effects from poorly interacting with volumetric fog, lights used in those effects should have light_volumetric_fog_energy set to 0.0 unless volumetric_fog_temporal_reprojection_enabled is disabled (or unless the reprojection amount is significantly lowered).

var light_volumetric_fog_energy : float = 1.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

shadow_bias

Used to adjust shadow appearance. Too small a value results in self-shadowing ("shadow acne"), while too large a value causes shadows to separate from casters ("peter-panning"). Adjust as needed.

var shadow_bias : float = 0.1

Property Value

float

Remarks

shadow_blur

Blurs the edges of the shadow. Can be used to hide pixel artifacts in low-resolution shadow maps. A high value can impact performance, make shadows appear grainy and can cause other unwanted artifacts. Try to keep as near default as possible.

var shadow_blur : float = 1.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

shadow_caster_mask

The light will only cast shadows using objects in the selected layers.

var shadow_caster_mask : int = 4294967295

Property Value

int

Remarks

  • void set_shadow_caster_mask(int value)
  • int get_shadow_caster_mask

shadow_enabled

If true, the light will cast real-time shadows. This has a significant performance cost. Only enable shadow rendering when it makes a noticeable difference in the scene's appearance, and consider using distance_fade_enabled to hide the light when far away from the Camera3D.

var shadow_enabled : bool = false

Property Value

bool

Remarks

  • void set_shadow(bool value)
  • bool has_shadow

shadow_normal_bias

Offsets the lookup into the shadow map by the object's normal. This can be used to reduce self-shadowing artifacts without using shadow_bias. In practice, this value should be tweaked along with shadow_bias to reduce artifacts as much as possible.

var shadow_normal_bias : float = 2.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

shadow_opacity

The opacity to use when rendering the light's shadow map. Values lower than 1.0 make the light appear through shadows. This can be used to fake global illumination at a low performance cost.

var shadow_opacity : float = 1.0

Property Value

float

Remarks

shadow_reverse_cull_face

If true, reverses the backface culling of the mesh. This can be useful when you have a flat mesh that has a light behind it. If you need to cast a shadow on both sides of the mesh, set the mesh to use double-sided shadows with GeometryInstance3D.SHADOW_CASTING_SETTING_DOUBLE_SIDED.

var shadow_reverse_cull_face : bool = false

Property Value

bool

Remarks

  • void set_shadow_reverse_cull_face(bool value)
  • bool get_shadow_reverse_cull_face

shadow_transmittance_bias 

var shadow_transmittance_bias : float = 0.05

Property Value

float

Remarks

Methods

get_correlated_color

Qualifiers: const

Returns the Color of an idealized blackbody at the given light_temperature. This value is calculated internally based on the light_temperature. This Color is multiplied by light_color before being sent to the RenderingServer.

Color get_correlated_color

get_param(int)

Qualifiers: const

Returns the value of the specified Param parameter.

float get_param(int param)

Parameters

param int

set_param(int, float)

Sets the value of the specified Param parameter.

void set_param(int param, float value)

Parameters

param int
value float