--- title: "Light Types" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/ENVISION/124486615/Light%20Types" format: markdown --- This page provides information about Envision's native light types. Overview Envision provides three native types of lights that you can create in your project: Disk – A general-purpose light that simulates real-world point light sources such as lamps and ceiling lights. Rectangular – A planar light source, also commonly referred to as "rectangle" light. Sphere – A spherical object that serves as a general-purpose light for simulating real-world point sources such as lamp bulbs. It emits light outward in all directions and can be scaled to any size. All light types can be accessed through their respective filter tab in the  Lights and Objects tabs. The parameters of each light are available in the Details tab upon light selection. ||Toolbar|| > Disk light  / Rectangle light / Sphere light If the Disk, Rectangular, or Sphere light button is not visible, click the arrow next to the Light creation button and select the desired light type from the dropdown menu. ||Create menu|| > Disk light  / Rectangle light / Sphere light Sphere Light The following parameters are available for the sphere light type. Base properties Intensity – Controls the intensity of the sphere light's brightness. See the Intensity example below. Temperature – Controls the color of the sphere light by degrees Kelvin. Temperature presets – Provides predefined color temperature settings (measured in degrees Kelvin) to quickly adjust the sphere light’s appearance. Choose from common lighting profiles, ranging from warm to cold colors, without manually adjusting the Kelvin value. Color – Changes the color of the sphere light. See the Color example below. Advanced properties Cast shadows – When enabled (the default), the light casts shadows. Turn this option off to disable shadow casting for the light. Affect base color – Specifies whether the light affects the base color of the materials. Affect specular – Specifies whether the light affects the specular portion of the materials. Affect reflections – Specifies whether the light source appears in reflections. Rectangular Light The following parameters are available for the rectangular light type. Base properties Intensity – Specifies the intensity of the rectangular light's brightness. See the Intensity example below. Temperature – Controls the color of the rectangular light by degrees Kelvin. Temperature presets – Provides predefined color temperature settings (measured in degrees Kelvin) to quickly adjust the rectangular light’s appearance. Choose from common lighting profiles, ranging from warm to cold colors, without manually adjusting the Kelvin value. Color – Controls the color of the rectangular light. See the Color example below. Light emission Double-sided – Specifies whether the light illuminates from both sides. Beam spread – Specifies the width of the light’s beam. Invert light direction – Reverses the direction of the light. For example, if the light is shining from above downward onto a scene, enabling Invert light direction reverses the direction of that light, making it shine from below upward. Advanced light contribution Cast shadows – When enabled (the default), the light casts shadows. Turn this option off to disable shadow casting for the light. Affect base color – Specifies whether the light affects the base color of the materials. Affect specular – Specifies whether the light affects the specular portion of the materials. Affect reflections – Specifies whether the light source appears in reflections. Disk Light The following parameters are available for the disk light type. Base properties Intensity – Specifies the intensity of the disk light's brightness. See the Intensity example below. Temperature – Controls the color of the disk light by degrees Kelvin. Temperature presets – Provides predefined color temperature settings (measured in degrees Kelvin) to quickly adjust the disk light’s appearance. Choose from common lighting profiles, ranging from warm to cold colors, without manually adjusting the Kelvin value. Color – Changes the color of the disk light. See the Color example below. Light emission Double-sided – Specifies whether the light illuminates from both sides. Beam spread – Specifies the width of the light’s beam. Invert light direction – Reverses the direction of the light. For example, if the light is shining from above downward onto a scene, enabling Invert light direction reverses the direction of that light, making it shine from below upward. Advanced light contribution Cast shadows – When enabled (the default), the light casts shadows. Turn this option off to disable shadow casting for the light. Affect base color – Specifies whether the light affects the base color of the materials. Affect specular – Specifies whether the light affects the specular portion of the materials. Affect reflections – Specifies whether the light source appears in reflections. Examples The following examples demonstrate the effect that individual Light parameters have on the scene. Click on any image to view it at a higher resolution. Example: Light Types This example shows the difference between the three light types in Envision. Note that the Bloom effect and some color corrections have been added to the final image for artistic purposes. Rectangle Light Disk Light Sphere Light Example: Intensity This example shows the effect of the Intensity parameter. The Light Type is Disk and the Intensity parameter ranges from 100 to 10000. Intensity = 100 Intensity = 1000 Intensity = 2000 Intensity = 10000 Example: Color This example shows the effect of the Color parameter. The Light Type is Disk and the Intensity is set to 100. Orange Color Pink Color Blue Color White Color