Directional Light – This is light that travels in a certain direction, this sort of light can be used to but emphasis on certain things or objects. In terms of modelling you may want directional light in a simulation of realism; for example in a house the direction the light may be coming from the window because the sun would be shining in. In this case the sun is the directional light for the house.
Ambient Light – This is the light that surrounds the environment or object, it will have a fixed color and intensity and it effects everything in the scene equally.
Point Light – This emits light in all directions from a single point.
Spotlight – A spotlight is lighting that will place emphasis on a particular object. It is usually a a narrow and bright beam of light that will keep a certain area bright to keep the attention on that.
Area Light – This is a light source that illuminates a significant area. For example an area light may be used in a house to light up a room.
Volume Light – This light it used to provide light that will provide an effect that goes with the atmosphere or tone of the rendered environment. Its like filling a volume with light. This may be used for light shining through tree or windows for example.
Light intensity – This is the amount of energy the light has, if the intensity is low then the light will be dim and vice versa.
Light colour – This is the colour of the light, this will usually be used to set the mood in a scenario. For example in a scary game dark reds may be used whereas in a happy environment bright colours may be used such as baby blue and yellow.
Light Linking – Linking lights allows certain lights to effect different objects.
Cookies (Light) – This lets you cast certain shadows, might have an object that off screen infront of the light, for example blinds in a house model.
Three Point Lighting – The three points are key light, fill light and back light. Key light is the main light, this will usually be the strongest light in the scene and will influence the environment the most, Fill light is the secondary light that will be placed on the opposite side of the light key, this is used the fill the shadows that have been created by the key. Backlights are what is placed behind the objects its used to provide definition and small highlights around the object outlines, this helps certain objects stand out and also gives it a three dimensional look.
Depth map shadows – these are the cheapest way of creating shadows, they use a map to created the shadow.
Ray Traced shadow – These are real time shadows which means that the results are much better than depth map and refraction can also happens. This works by casting a ray from the camera to the object back to the camera to work out where the shadows are.
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