I have a Rectangular Light that is in a layer with a material associated.
The rectangular light is totally invisible in the scene, it does not take the layer material, which makes sense somehow.
What was surprising was that when I added a mirror the light is visible in the mirror. Is this expected?
See below.
N
Yeah. “Light objects” don’t “exist” as geometry, they’re just a point really, the ‘reflection’ is a fake specular highlight…which is a fake reflection.
I mean it looks good on the reflection, but we should see the same on the scene. It does not make sense otherwise…
Note that “light objects” are a “legacy” tech that predates modern path-tracing’s ability to let you just brute-force model actual light objects and turn any surface into an actual light source, like Cycles barely knows what to do with those stupid things.
They are a relic of the days when the idea of actually modeling a light source and actually having it light up your scene was insane, you had to make your light source look like it was lit up then have an invisible “light object” actually cast some light.
I dont do many interior shots, I may have known that and forgot. Yes, you would now use a light emitting material.
I find the invisible rectangles sometimes nice to light some interior scenes, but I was surprise it appeared in the reflection.
thanks, N
