Omni Light

An Omni light casts rays in all directions from a single source. Omni lights are useful for adding "fill lighting" to your scene, or simulating point source lights.

• Create panel > (Lights) > Standard > Object Type rollout > Omni button
• Standard menu: Create menu > Lights > Standard Lights > Omni
• Enhanced menu: Objects menu > Lights > Omni

Top: Top view of an omni light

Bottom: Perspective view of the same light

Omni lights can cast shadows and projections. A single shadow-casting omni light is the equivalent of six shadow-casting spotlights, pointing outward from the center.

When you set a map projected by an Omni light to be projected using the Spherical, Cylindrical, or Shrink Wrap Environment coordinates, the map is projected in the same way as it would be mapped to the environment. When you use the Screen Environment coordinates or Explicit Map Channel Texture coordinates, six copies of the map are projected radially.

Tip: Omni lights can generate up to six quadtrees, so they generate ray-traced shadows more slowly than spotlights. Avoid using ray-traced shadows with omni lights unless your scene requires this.

Procedures

To create an omni light:

1. On the Create panel, click (Lights).
2. Choose Standard from the drop-down list.
3. On the Object Type rollout, click Omni.
4. Click the viewport location where you want the light to be. If you drag the mouse, you can move the light around before releasing the mouse to fix its position.

   The light is now part of the scene.

5. Set the creation parameters.

   To adjust the light's effect, you can move it as you would any object.