opticalFX node

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Optical FX nodes are used to add glowing effects to a light source in the scene. These effects simulate the sorts of light effects that happen on camera lenses; radial "star" arms, light halos, and lens flares. Since the effect is happening on the camera lens, the size of the effect does not change based on the distance of the light from the camera.

These Optical FX are added during post-processing, that is, after the main rendering is completed.

Normally, an Optical FX node is created automatically by the system when you click on the Light Glow mapping button, which is found under the Light Effects tab in the Attribute Editor of any light shape. We recommend this method of creation, since all the connections are made for you. The system also creates a sphere, attached to the Optical FX. The optical FX determines its Glow Visibility based on how much of the sphere is visible. (The sphere itself is not rendered).

If you create an Optical FX node yourself, you will have to connect it to a light to make it work properly. Here are the connections you need to make:

   Optical FX              LightShape
   ----------              ----------
   Light Connection ------> Light Glow
   Light Color      <------ Color
   Light World Mat  <------ World Matrix

In the table below, important attributes have their names listed in bold in the description column.

Node name	Parents	Classification	MFn type	Compatible function sets
opticalFX	node	auxiliary/light:postprocess/opticalFX	kOpticalFX	kBase kNamedObject kDependencyNode kOpticalFX

Attributes (65)

The following quick index only shows top-level attributes (too many attributes to show them all): active, flareColSpread, flareColor (3), flareFocus, flareHorizontal, flareIntensity, flareLength, flareMaxSize, flareMinSize, flareNumCircles, flareVertical, fogColor (3), fogIntensity, fogNoise, fogOpacity, fogRadialNoise, fogSpread, fogStarlevel, fogType, glowColor (3), glowIntensity, glowNoise, glowOpacity, glowRadialNoise, glowSpread, glowStarLevel, glowType, glowVisibility, haloColor (3), haloIntensity, haloSpread, haloType, hexagonFlare, ignoreLight, lensFlare, lightColor (3), lightConnection, lightWorldMat, noiseThreshold, noiseUoffset, noiseUscale, noiseVoffset, noiseVscale, radialFrequency, rotation, starPoints, visibility (3)

Long name (short name) Type Default Flags

active (act) bool true

Active controls whether the light glow is on or not. Turn off Active to make the effect disappear.

glowType (gt) enum LINEAR_GLOW

Glow Type controls the appearance of the light glow. Possible settings are:

None:

Linear: Glow slowly diminishes from the center of the light

Exponential: Glow quickly diminishes from the center of the light

Ball: Glow diminishes faster towards a distance (from the light center) specified by the Glow Spread attribute.

Lens Flare: Lower frequencies (red) refract (or spread) more than the higher frequencies (blue).

Rim Halo: This is like Lens Flare, but the Glow starts at a certain distance from the light, controlled by the Glow Spread attribute.

haloType (ht) enum 0

Halo Type controls the type of halo the light produces when viewed directly. Halo is similar to Glow, except that the falloff is more gradual. The available types are:

None:

Linear: Halo slowly diminishes from the center of the light

Exponential: Halo quickly diminishes from the center of the light

Ball: Halo diminishes faster towards a distance (from the light center) specified by the Halo Spread attribute.

Lens Flare: Simulates a bright light source illuminating the surfaces of several camera lenses. The intensity of the flare is determined by the Halo Intensity attribute. The size of the flare circles is relative to the field of view of the camera.

Rim Halo: Forms a circular ring with a soft central glow. The size of the ring is controlled by the Halo Spread attribute.

fogType (ft) short 0

What type of fog (this feature is not implemented).

lensFlare (lf) bool false

Lens Flare Simulates a bright light source illuminating the surfaces of several camera lenses. The intensity of the flare is determined by the Flare Intensity attribute. The size of the flare circles created is relative to the field of view of the camera. The Lens Flare attribute is not available for ambient lights.

glowColor (gc) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0

Glow Color controls the basic color of the light glow..

glowColorR (gr) float 0.0

The red component of Glow Color.

glowColorG (gg) float 0.0

The green component of Glow Color.

glowColorB (gb) float 0.0

The blue component of Glow Color.

haloColor (hc) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0

Halo Color controsl the basic color of the Halo.

haloColorR (hr) float 0.0

The red component of Halo Color.

haloColorG (hg) float 0.0

The red component of Halo Color.

haloColorB (hb) float 0.0

The red component of Halo Color.

fogColor (fc) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0

The fog color (not implemented).

fogColorR (fr) float 0.0

The red component of the fog color (not implemented).

fogColorG (fg) float 0.0

The red component of the fog color (not implemented).

fogColorB (fb) float 0.0

The red component of the fog color (not implemented).

flareColor (rc) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0

Flare Color controls the basic color of Lens Flare.

flareColorR (rr) float 0.0

The red component of Flare Color.

flareColorG (rg) float 0.0

The red component of Flare Color.

flareColorB (rb) float 0.0

The red component of Flare Color.

flareIntensity (fi) float 1.0

Flare Intensity controls the brightness of the flare effect.

flareNumCircles (fn) float 20.0

Flare Num Circles controls the number of circles in the flare effect.

If Num Circles is very large, rendering times may be Tint32, especially if Flare Min Size and Flare Max Size are large, and Flare Color is textured.

flareMinSize (fm) float 0.1

Flare Min Size: The size of the lens flare circles is randomized between the Flare Min Size and Flare Max Size. These sizes are relative to the view of the camera.

flareMaxSize (fa) float 1.0

Flare Max Size. See Flare Min Size.

flareColSpread (lc) float 0.5

Flare Col Spread: The hue of flare color is randomized, centered on the Flare Color value. Increase Flare Col Spread to allow more variation in the colors.

Note that this will have seem to have no effect if the base color of the flare is white or a shade of grey.

flareFocus (ff) float 0.6

Flare Focus controls the sharpness of the circle edges. Increase this value to make the circles sharper.

flareVertical (fv) float 1.0

Flare Vertical and Flare Horizontal control the axis of the flare relative to the center of the image. If the light source moves, the flare will appear to rotate through this point.

flareHorizontal (fh) float 1.0

Flare Horizontal: See Flare Vertical (above)

flareLength (fl) float 1.0

Flare Length controls the length of the flare effect relative to the light location. If Flare Length is small, all circles will overlap the light. If Flare Length is large, the circles will spread out across the image.

The Flare Length value has no effect if the Flare Vertical and Flare Horizontal attributes are both 0.

hexagonFlare (hf) bool false

Hexagon Flare makes the flare elements shaped like hexagons rather than circles.

glowIntensity (gi) float 1.0

Glow Intensity controls the brightness of the glow. As the Intensity value increases, so does the apparent size of the glow effect. A negative Glow Intensity value subtracts from other glows.

haloIntensity (hi) float 1.0

Halo Intensity controls the brightness of the halo. As the Intensity value increases, so does the apparent size of the halo effect.

fogIntensity (oi) float 1.0

Fog intensity (not implemented).

glowSpread (gs) float 1.0

Glow Spread controls the size of the glow effect.

haloSpread (hs) float 1.0

Halo Spread controls the size of the halo effect. Halo Spread also controls the size of the glow if Glow Type is set to Rim Halo. Halo size is gererally larger than glow size when their spreads are the same.

fogSpread (fs) float 1.0

Fog spread (not implemented).

glowNoise (gd) float 0.0

Glow Noise controls the appearance of of noise (random fluctuations) in the glow.

fogNoise (fd) float 0.0

Fog 2Dnoise (not implemented)

glowRadialNoise (gn) float 0.0

Glow Radial Noise randomizes the spread of the glow to simulate starburst effects and eyelashes refracting light. Negative values of Glow Radial Noise produce thicker noise

fogRadialNoise (fz) float 0.0

Fog radial noise (not implemented)

glowStarLevel (gv) float 3.0

Glow Star Level simulates camera star filter effects.

fogStarlevel (fe) float 0.0

Fog star level (not implemented)

glowOpacity (go) float 0.0

Glow Opacity controls the amount that the light's glow obscures objects behind it. Increase Glow Opacity to make it obscure objects more.

fogOpacity (fo) float 0.0

Fog opacity (not implemented)

radialFrequency (rf) float 0.5

Radial Frequency controls the frequency of the Radial Noise. Increase this to make the noise more fine-grained.

starPoints (sp) float 4.0

Star Points controls the number of points on glow star filter effects. Set Star Points to 1 to produce a comet-like effect, or more points to make a more regular, star-like glow effect.

rotation (ra) float 0.0

Rotation controls the rotated position of the star points. You can animate this to make the light glows seem to "roll".

noiseUscale (nu) float 1.0

Noise U Scale is used to scale the noise (random fluctuations) in the glow. Increasing Noise U Scale will seem to compress the noise vertically.

noiseVscale (nv) float 1.0

Noise V Scale is used to scale the noise (random fluctuations) in the glow. Increasing Noise V Scale will seem to compress the noise horizontally.

noiseUoffset (ni) float 1.0

Noise U Offset can be used to move the noise vertically.

noiseVoffset (nf) float 0.5

Noise V Offset can be used to move the noise horizontally.

noiseThreshold (nt) float 0.5

Noise Threshold is the cutoff value for the 2d noise. As Threshold approaches 0, the noise breaks up into smaller patches.

ignoreLight (il) bool false

Ignore Light: Ignores missing connection to a light.

As a default, an optical effect needs to be connected to a light, or it will be ignored at render time. When this attribute is turned on, the effect will be rendered even if no light is connected.
For example, you could create a Locator object in the scene, and attach its World Matrix attribute to the Light World Mat of this node. If you then turn on Ignore Light, you have a glow effect that you can position by moving the locator.

lightWorldMat (lw) matrix identity

Light World Mat: This is used to keep the light glow effect centered on the light. The World Matrix attribute of a light shape should be connected to this attribute.

lightConnection (ln) Message n/a

Light Connection. This attribute should be connected to the Light Glow attribute of the light shape.

glowVisibility (gvb) float 1.0

Glow Visibility controls the fractional visibility of the glow effect. Normally, this attribute is controlled by a piece of geometry automatically created by the system.

For example, when you add glow to a Point Light, a sphere is created. The sphere's Visible Fraction attribute drives Glow Visibility, so that as the sphere is occluded, the glow stops.

For Spotlights, a 'directed disc' is created. The glow is only visible when the disc (and therefore the spotlight) is facing the camera.

lightColor (lr) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0

Light Color is the color of the light that this glow effect is attached to. The Color attribute of the light shape should be connected to this node.

lightColorR (lcr) float 0.0

The red component of Light Color

lightColorG (lcg) float 0.0

The green component of Light Color

lightColorB (lgb) float 0.0

The blue component of Light Color

visibility (vb) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0

The visibility of the light. (not implemented)

visibilityR (vbr) float 0.0

The red-component of the visibility of the light.

visibilityG (vbg) float 0.0

The green-component of the visibility of the light.

visibilityB (vbb) float 0.0

The blue-component of the visibility of the light.