OTOY Forums

Is it possible to add the the Distribution Pin to the AreaLight item? I often use this assembly, but i hate to convert to an octane override. Its much much nicer to use the arealight item. Since its now possible to add a texture the only thing left is the abillity to change the angle of the light. Since you don't want to implement it directly in the item maybe it's possible to allow to add this in the schematic.

Thank you in advance

Hi

If you just want to change the angle/direction of the light, you can change the rotation of the area light. However if you want to change the cone angle of the light, this would need the Distribution pin exposed, and I don't think this would be a simple thing to implement, so "Create Octane Emitter" would be the preferred option here.

Thanks

Paul

of course i know how tho rotate a arealight In photography there is often used a grid to make a light more directional

I think this would be a great addition to the arealight item. Maybe there is a better solution than my assembly but it would be cool to be able to access this functionality easier

Since there is now a "official" osl texture for this effect, would it be possible to add the Distribution to the Arealight Item? It's really so much easier to let the Arealights stay lights instead of converting them.
https://render.otoy.com/downloads/d9/07/6a/ab/Spotlight.orbx

Hi

would it be possible to add the Distribution to the Arealight Item?

This would be possible, but would require a re-working of the way Area and Point lights work, and I don't think it's a high enough priority item for the benefit given the other work that needs to be done on the plugin.

To recreate Spotlight.ORBX in the plugin, try the following:

1) Add an Area Light
2) Click "Create Octane Emitter" on the new Area Light
3) Select the Area Light Emitter Nodes workspace
4) Add an Octane OSL Texture item to the workspace and plug it in to the Distribution of the Emission
5) Copy and paste the OSL code from Spotlight.ORBX into the OSL texture
6) For some reason I needed to change the Direction Mode from the default value to 2 to 5 - unsure what the default value was not automatically selected

Paul

Hey Paul,
thank you for looking into this again and thank you for the workaround. I already knew that this is possible, but as i said it's far more elegant to not convert the lights. Also it's not possible to use it in conjunction with the new Quadlightfeature. It's sad to hear that this would cause so much re-work. It's the only channel that can't be accessed from the Emissionnode. Would it be an option to integrate this script into the item? Maybe it could be activated if Volumetric Spotlight is unchecked. At the moment the light simply disappears. I use this directional light a lot and it gives you a lot of freedom in lighting.

Would it be an option to integrate this script into the item?

As always, this is possible, but a lot of work, and I think there are many other higher priority items to address. The best solution at this stage is to use the workflow I posted above.

Thanks

Paul

I don't want to upset you and believe you that it's not a simple task, but i want to add that this is a feature shown in the 2020.1 New Feature List https://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=74586 (quadlight as spotlight). I think this is not possible to do in Modo right now or can i convert to octane emitter and stick to the quadlight? In my opinion a spotlight is a basic and important type of light. I would be very grateful if this would be added some day

Hesekiel2517 wrote:I don't want to upset you and believe you that it's not a simple task, but i want to add that this is a feature shown in the 2020.1 New Feature List https://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=74586 (quadlight as spotlight). I think this is not possible to do in Modo right now or can i convert to octane emitter and stick to the quadlight? In my opinion a spotlight is a basic and important type of light. I would be very grateful if this would be added some day

Sorry, but I think I am not understanding your question. The spotlight ORBX provided by OTOY in the link you posted can be used in the Modo plugin - simply follow the workflow I posted above. The Quad Spotlight is not a core node in the Octane engine (it requires addon OSL code), so it's not a node that I can simply add to the plugin.

Thanks

Paul

Hey Paul, yes thats true for the spotlight part. But there is this new Quad Light Node, which is faster than Emissive Geometry. You implemented this option also to the area light. If i hit "create octane emitter" it will create emissive geometry instead of a quad light. So it's only possible to use the Spotlight code with emissive geometry and not with the quad light. Or am i wrong?

You might not see the importance of a spotlight or directional light. But it's a very basic lighting technique in photography (and also a lot of other renderes) and therefore should (in my opinion) be available in octane for modo.