Go to: Synopsis. Return value. Related. Flags. MEL examples.

Synopsis

ambientLight [-ambientShade float] [-discRadius linear] [-exclusive boolean] [-intensity float] [-name string] [-position linear linear linear] [-rgb float float float] [-rotation angle angle angle] [-shadowColor float float float] [-shadowDither float] [-shadowSamples int] [-softShadow boolean] [-useRayTraceShadows boolean]

ambientLight is undoable, queryable, and editable.

TlightCmd is the base class for other light commands. The ambientLight command is used to edit the parameters of existing ambientLights, or to create new ones. The default behaviour is to create a new ambientlight.

This is the commmand that instantiates an ambientLight or edits the parameters of an existing one. TambientLightCmd inherits from TlightCmd which defines common flags like intensity, colour etc. See TlightCmd for a global picture of the light commands. Note that the flag fAmbientLightUsed indicates whether the command uses any ambient specific flags. That is, if a command doesn't use flags defined here, the boolean fAmbientLightUsed is set to false and thus the undo/redo information is not saved at this level.

TambientLightCmd behaves like any other command, it has flags, saves undo information etc. the only slightly different behaviour is that it calls up to TlightCmd to complete the functionality of the command. Example parseArgs: TambientLightCmd defines ambientLight specific parameters like -ambientShade however, several other parameters are available in TlightCmd such as -intensity etc. So when parsing the arguments, a call is made to TlightCmd::parseArgs to parse common parameters (like Intensity).

Return value

double[]when querying the rgb or shadowColor flags double when querying the intensity flag boolean when querying the useRayTraceShadows or exclusive flags linear[] when querying the position flag angle[] when querying the rotation flag string when querying the name flag
stringLight shape name

In query mode, return type is based on queried flag.

Related

directionalLight, exclusiveLightCheckBox, lightList, lightlink, pointLight, spotLight, spotLightPreviewPort

Flags

ambientShade, discRadius, exclusive, intensity, name, position, rgb, rotation, shadowColor, shadowDither, shadowSamples, softShadow, useRayTraceShadows
Long name (short name) Argument types Properties
-ambientShade(-as) float createqueryedit
ambientShade
-discRadius(-drs) linear createqueryedit
radius of the disc around the light
-exclusive(-exc) boolean createquery
True if the light is exclusively assigned
-intensity(-i) float createquery
Intensity of the light
-name(-n) string createquery
Name of the light
-position(-pos) linear linear linear createquery
Position of the light
-rgb(-rgb) float float float createquery
RGB colour of the light
-rotation(-rot) angle angle angle createquery
Rotation of the light for orientation, where applicable
-shadowColor(-sc) float float float createquery
Color of the light's shadow
-shadowDither(-sd) float createqueryedit
dither the shadow
-shadowSamples(-sh) int createqueryedit
number of shadow samples.
-softShadow(-ss) boolean createqueryedit
soft shadow
-useRayTraceShadows(-rs) boolean createquery
True if ray trace shadows are to be used
Flag can appear in Create mode of command Flag can appear in Edit mode of command
Flag can appear in Query mode of command Flag can be used more than once in a command.

MEL examples

// Create an ambient light
string $light = `ambientLight -intensity 0.8`;

// Change the light intensity
ambientLight -e -intensity 0.5 $light;

// Query it
ambientLight -q -intensity $light;
// Result:0.5 //