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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 dependNode postprocess/opticalFX kOpticalFX kBase
kNamedObject
kDependencyNode
kOpticalFX

Related nodes

materialInfo, multilisterLight, defaultLightList, shaderGlow

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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Active controls whether the light glow is on or not. Turn off Active to make the effect disappear.
glowType (gt) enum LINEAR_GLOW outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
Glow Type controls the appearance of the light glow. Possible settings are:
None: No glow.Linear: Glow slowly diminishes from the center of the lightExponential: Glow quickly diminishes from the center of the lightBall: 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 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
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: No halo.Linear: Halo slowly diminishes from the center of the lightExponential: Halo quickly diminishes from the center of the lightBall: 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 outputinputconnectablestorable
What type of fog (this feature is not implemented).
lensFlare (lf) bool false outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Glow Color controls the basic color of the light glow..
glowColorR (gr) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The red component of Glow Color.
glowColorG (gg) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The green component of Glow Color.
glowColorB (gb) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The blue component of Glow Color.
haloColor (hc) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Halo Color controsl the basic color of the Halo.
haloColorR (hr) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The red component of Halo Color.
haloColorG (hg) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The red component of Halo Color.
haloColorB (hb) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The red component of Halo Color.
fogColor (fc) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
The fog color (not implemented).
fogColorR (fr) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
The red component of the fog color (not implemented).
fogColorG (fg) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
The red component of the fog color (not implemented).
fogColorB (fb) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
The red component of the fog color (not implemented).
flareColor (rc) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Flare Color controls the basic color of Lens Flare.
flareColorR (rr) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The red component of Flare Color.
flareColorG (rg) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The red component of Flare Color.
flareColorB (rb) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The red component of Flare Color.
flareIntensity (fi) float 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
Flare Intensity controls the brightness of the flare effect.
flareNumCircles (fn) float 20.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Flare Max Size. See Flare Min Size.
flareColSpread (lc) float 0.5 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Flare Focus controls the sharpness of the circle edges. Increase this value to make the circles sharper.
flareVertical (fv) float 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Flare Horizontal: See Flare Vertical (above)
flareLength (fl) float 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Hexagon Flare makes the flare elements shaped like hexagons rather than circles.
glowIntensity (gi) float 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
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 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Fog intensity (not implemented).
glowSpread (gs) float 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Glow Spread controls the size of the glow effect.
haloSpread (hs) float 1.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Fog spread (not implemented).
glowNoise (gd) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Glow Noise controls the appearance of of noise (random fluctuations) in the glow.
fogNoise (fd) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Fog 2Dnoise (not implemented)
glowRadialNoise (gn) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Fog radial noise (not implemented)
glowStarLevel (gv) float 3.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Glow Star Level simulates camera star filter effects.
fogStarlevel (fe) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Fog star level (not implemented)
glowOpacity (go) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Fog opacity (not implemented)
radialFrequency (rf) float 0.5 outputinputconnectablestorable
Radial Frequency controls the frequency of the Radial Noise. Increase this to make the noise more fine-grained.
starPoints (sp) float 4.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
Noise U Offset can be used to move the noise vertically.
noiseVoffset (nf) float 0.5 outputinputconnectablestorable
Noise V Offset can be used to move the noise horizontally.
noiseThreshold (nt) float 0.5 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 outputinputconnectablestorable
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 inputconnectablestorable
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 outputconnectable
Light Connection. This attribute should be connected to the Light Glow attribute of the light shape.
glowVisibility (gvb) float 1.0 inputconnectablestorable
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 inputconnectablestorable
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 inputconnectablestorable
The red component of Light Color
lightColorG (lcg) float 0.0 inputconnectablestorable
The green component of Light Color
lightColorB (lgb) float 0.0 inputconnectablestorable
The blue component of Light Color
visibility (vb) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 inputconnectablestorable
The visibility of the light. (not implemented)
visibilityR (vbr) float 0.0 inputconnectablestorable
The red-component of the visibility of the light.
visibilityG (vbg) float 0.0 inputconnectablestorable
The green-component of the visibility of the light.
visibilityB (vbb) float 0.0 inputconnectablestorable
The blue-component of the visibility of the light.