I place spotlights into my scene, but when I render out, they have no effect on the objects I’m trying to illuminate… I’ve tried everything I know…I increase the intensity etc…nothing. I am running on a MacBookPro M1 running Sequoia, latest IOS revision. Any help would be really appreciated.
Is there a way that you can contact me directly on this issue. I’ve posted here before and I never seem to get responses or I miss them all together. Thanks,
Jim Girard
Please run the Rhino command _SystemInfo and post the result in a reply.
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for getting back with me. Again, when I create a spotlight and aim it directly at an object there is hardly any light on the object. I’ve tried strengthening intensity, I’ve played with constant vs Linear vs logarithmic and still no lighting to speak of.
Here’s my system information as requested.
J Girard System Info.txt (4.7 KB)
Lighting Configuration
Render with Spotlight
Render without spotlight, no perceivable difference. I doubled the intensity and no effect…additionally, I played with Constant, Linear and Logarithmic and no effect.
What am I doing wrong…thanks for any help in advance Nathan… Jim Girard
@Jim_Girard can you share your file with me using our upload tool to do so confidentially. I have prefilled my e-mail address, which ensures I get a notification when the upload has completed.
in your display modes in your Rhino settings you can set for each mode a lighting scheme, if you have set it to anything else than scene the lighting will not have any effects there, for instance ambient occlusion or default or anything will just keep showing the same light.
Hi Nathan,
Attached is the file you requested. In Display Modes I set the ray tracing to Ambient Occlusion as requested with no difference in the render output.
I’ve attached the file in ZIP format for your review. I’m out of ammo at this end. Jim.
Unfortunately, Even compressed, the file is too big to upload…any suggestions?
Jim
You’re not supposed to set lighting scheme to ambient occlusion. The goal was to illustrate that scene lighting is the default and is what should be used. If you don’t have that then you definitely won’t get the results you’re looking for.
I received your file. For spotlights it is better to not have too low hardness, it requires higher intensity for Raytraced. With your file I’d keep the intensity as you have, but increase spotlight hardness to 40-45%. Additionally I’d use linear falloff:
Hi Nathan,
Thanks so much for your direction…I finally got what was wrong and made the necessary adjustments. Your input on A-Set Raytracing display mode to screen and 2. Linear falloff and keeping shadows about 40-45% hardness.
I’m sorry to bother you with this, but your expertise and kind patience was deeply appreciated. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness…
Deepest regards,
Jim Girqard
you obviously missed that you got replies from 2 different people, also missed the actual point of the suggestion. 
maybe a bit too hasty? take your time, nobody enjoys wasting it.
