---
title: "Spot Light"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VMAX/1440645974/Spot+Light"
format: markdown
---
The V-Ray Spot Light creates physically accurate area lights.
## **Overview**
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The V-Ray Spot light is a V-Ray-specific light source plugin that generates physically accurate area lights. Use it to create focused light on objects within the scene. Adjust the Cone and Penumbra Angles to enhance or soften the light effect. Utilize barn doors to cut the beam and project textures through it, resembling a gobo used in stage or theatre fixtures.
> ℹ️ Spot lights emit from a single point with no surface area, so at the same Multiplier they look much dimmer than other V-Ray lights. The default value of 30 is usually too low. Increase the Multiplier significantly until you get the brightness you need.
> ℹ️ There is currently no V-Ray GPU support for Barn doors, Cone shape, Aspect, Corner radius, the projected Map, and focus.
UI Paths
||Command panel|| >** Create** tab >** Lights** > Choose **V-Ray** from dropdown >** VRayLight **> Click and drag in a viewport > Change **Type** to **Spot**
## **General Rollout**
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**On** – Turns the VRayLight on and off.
**Type** – Specifies the shape and function of the light:
> Macro (anchor)
**Plane** – The VRayLight takes the shape of a planar rectangle.
**Sphere** – The VRayLight has the shape of a sphere.
**Disc** – The VRayLight takes the shape of a planar disc.
**Cylinder **– The VRayLight has the shape of a cylinder with no caps on both ends.
**Dome** – The VRayLight emanates from a spherical or hemispherical dome around the scene extents. *See the **[Dome Light](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VMAX/pages/113575431)** page.*
**Mesh** – Allows the usage of any mesh object as the shape of the light. *See the **[Mesh Light](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VMAX/pages/113575429)** page.*
**Spot **– The V-Ray Spot Light is a V-Ray-specific light source plugin that generates physically accurate area lights.
**Targeted **– When enabled, a separate target object is attached to the light source. This target object can be moved separately from the light source, making it easier to point the light within the scene. The value specifies the distance from the light source to the target. While any type of VRayLight can have a target, the target is truly useful only with **Plane** and **Disc** lights. This option can be changed only in the Modify tab.
**Units** – Specifies the light units. Using correct units is essential when you work with the [VRayPhysicalCamera](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VMAX/pages/113586662). The light automatically takes the scene's unit scale into consideration to produce the correct result for the scale you are working with. The possible values are:
**Default (image)** – The color and multiplier directly determine the visible color of the light without any conversion. The light surface appears with the given color in the final image when seen directly by the camera (assuming there is no color mapping involved).
**Luminous power (lm)** – Total emitted visible light power measured in lumens. When this setting is used, the intensity of the light does not depend on its size. A typical 100W incandescent light bulb emits about 1500 lms of light.
**Luminance (lm/m²/sr)** – Visible light surface power measured in lumens per square meter per steradian. When this setting is used, the intensity of the light depends on its size.** **
**Radiant power (W)** – Total emitted visible light power measured in watts. When using this setting, the intensity of the light does not depend on its size. Keep in mind that this is not the same as the electric power consumed by a light bulb for example. A typical 100W light bulb only emits between 2 and 3 watts as visible light.** **
**Radiance (W/m²/sr)** – Visible light surface power measured in watts per square meter per steradian. When this setting is used, the intensity of the light depends on its size.
**Multiplier** – Multiplier for the light color, and also the light intensity for some **Units** settings.
**Mode** – Specifies the mode in which the color of the light is determined:
**Color** – Тhe **Color** swatch specifies the color of the light rays and of the light source itself when visible in renderings. For **Units** settings other than **Default (image)**, this color is normalized so that only the color hue is used.** **
**Temperature** – Тhe color of both light rays and the light source itself is specified by the **Temperature **value expressed in Kelvin.
**Map** – Enables the use of a texture for the light surface when a **Plane** or **Disc** light type is used. The button under this option selects the map to use. The texture intensity is also affected by the **Multiplier** value. The light uses the texture's alpha as opacity map.
## **Spot Rollout**
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**Cone (Beam) angle** – Specifies the beam width as a full angle in degrees, from 0 to 180. Small values give a tight, focused beam; large values give a wide flood.
**Penumbra angle** – Softens the beam edge, in degrees.
A **positive** value adds a soft band *outside* the cone: the beam keeps its full brightness up to the cone angle, then fades out over the penumbra.
A **negative** value puts the soft band *inside* the cone, so the beam starts to fade before it reaches the cone edge.
**0** gives a hard edge.
**Penumbra falloff** – How brightness changes across the penumbra.
**Linear** – Brightness drops at an even rate from full to none.
**Smooth cubic** – Brightness eases out of full and eases into darkness, for a softer, more natural edge.
**Cone (Beam) shape** – The shape of the beam’s cross-section.
**Circle** – A round beam, like a classic spotlight. This is the only shape that supports barn doors.
**Rectangle** – A rectangular beam, useful for windows of light, framing projectors or architectural accents.
**Aspect** – Stretches the beam’s cross-section. 1 gives a circle (Circle shape) or a square (Rectangle shape). Values above or below 1 stretch the beam into an ellipse or a longer rectangle.
**Corner radius** – Rounds the corners of a Rectangle beam, from 0 (sharp corners) to 1 (fully rounded). Available only with the Rectangle shape.
**Light radius** – The size of the emitting source. 0 is a point source with sharp shadows. Larger values give softer shadows, like a larger lamp. The source itself is never visible to the camera.
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**Barn doors** – Turns on four flaps that cut the beam, like the metal doors on a stage light. Use them to keep light off things you don’t want lit; each flap gives a sharp boundary on its side of the beam. Available only with the Circle shape.
**Barn door left / right / top / bottom** – How far each flap is open, in degrees from the centre of the beam (0 to 90).
Smaller values close the flap further. 0 closes that side completely.
Values wider than the beam itself (half the cone angle plus the penumbra) have no visible effect.
The four flaps work independently, so the cut can be off-centre. In the viewport each flap is drawn as a line at its angle.
**Tex focus type** – Specifies where the projected Map is in sharp focus. Available only when a Map is assigned and turned on.
**None** – The projected texture is sharp at every distance.
**Light target** – Sharp at the target’s distance. Available only when Targeted is on.
**Distance** – Sharp at the distance set in **Focus distance**.
**Object** – Sharp where the beam reaches the object chosen with **Pick focus object**.
**Focus distance** – Specifies the distance from the light source at which the projected texture appears sharp. Used when Tex focus type is Distance.
**Focus blur** – Specifies how quickly the projected texture fades from the point of focus. 0 keeps it sharp everywhere; higher values make it blur faster as surfaces move closer or farther than the focus distance. Use this to match a real fixture that’s slightly out of focus on the floor.
**Pick focus object** – Specifies the object the texture is focused on. Used when Tex focus type is Object.
## **Options Rollout**
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**Inc/Excl list **– (available for Include/Exclude list mode) Opens the 3ds Max Exclude/Include window for selection of objects to be excluded or included in illumination and/or shadow-casting for this light.
**+** – (available for Include/Exclude list mode) Adds objects to the Include/Exclude list by picking them in the viewport.
**-** – (available for Include/Exclude list mode) Removes objects from the Include/Exclude list by picking them in the viewport.
**Exclude Layers** – (available for Exclude layers mode) Opens the Include/Exclude layers window for selection of layers to be excluded or included.
**Exclude object IDs** – (available for Exclude object IDs mode) Allows you to select objects to be excluded based on their object IDs.
**Cast shadows** – When enabled (the default), the light casts shadows. Turn this option off to disable shadow casting for the light.
**Double-sided** – This option has no effect for Mesh light sources.
**Invisible** – Controls whether the shape of the light source is visible in the rendered image. When this option is disabled, the light source is rendered in the color specified by the **Color** or **Temperature** setting in the Intensity rollout. This option only affects the visibility of the light when seen directly by the camera or through refractions. The visibility of the light with respect to reflections is controlled by the **Affect reflections** option.
**Note**: Regardless of whether this option is enabled, the light source is still taken into account by Global Illumination calculations, which might cause secondary GI rays to be blocked by or bounced off the light's surface. To make the light completely invisible to GI, place a [VRayColor](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VMAX/pages/113575814) texture map into the light's texture slot and set the **alpha** value for the VRayColor map to 0.0.
**Occlude other lights** – Controls the behavior of invisible lights in relation to other light sources. When enabled, the light blocks the lighting from other lights as if it's visible. Also in reflections the light behaves as it's visible and occludes other lights. When disabled, the light is transparent for other lights and does not occlude them. This option doesn't affect visible lights (as they always occlude other lights) and dome lights (which are always additive).
**Affect diffuse** – Determines whether the light affects the diffuse portion of the materials. The **Multiplier** value on the Intensity rollout controls the light's contribution to the diffuse portion of the materials.
**Affect specular** – Determines whether the light affects the specular portion of the materials. The **Multiplier** value on the Intensity rollout controls the light's contribution to specular reflections.
**Affect reflections** – Specifies whether the light source appears in reflections.
**Affect atmospherics** - Specifies whether the light influences the atmospheric effects in the scene. The value determines the amount of involvement.
## **Sampling Rollout**
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**Shadow bias** – This value moves the shadow toward or away from the shadow-casting object (or objects). Lower values move the shadow toward the object(s), while higher values move it away. If this value is too low, shadows can "leak" through places they shouldn't, produce moire patterns or make out-of-place dark areas on meshes. If this value is too high, shadows can "detach" from an object. If the value is too extreme in either direction, shadows might not appear in the rendering at all.
**Cutoff** – Specifies a threshold for the light's intensity, cutting off the light's effect on a surface when it falls below this value. Lights lose intensity due to GI bouncing or decay. When light hits a surface but its intensity falls below the cutoff, the effect of the light on that surface is not computed. This can be useful in scenes with many lights, where you want to limit the effect of the lights to some distance around them or reduce computations (and thus reduce rendering time) where the light's impact is negligible. Larger values limit the light's effect on objects to a smaller area around the light source, while lower values increase the range of the light's effect. If you specify 0.0, there is no cutoff and the light is calculated for all surfaces regardless of intensity loss. The default value is 0.001. *This parameter is not available when the renderer is set to GPU.*
**Tex resolution** – Specifies the resolution at which the texture is resampled for importance sampling. This parameter is not supported when working with the V-Ray GPU render.
## **Decay Rollout**
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The Decay parameters determine how the light fades in and out. The **Near Decay** determines how light "fades in". The light isn't at its maximum value at its source, but instead gradually increases until it reaches the **Near end**. The **Far Decay** determines how light "fades out". The light isn't at its maximum value at its end, but instead gradually decreases after the **Far start**.
*To see how the near and far decay interact, see the **[Near and Far example](#NearFarDecay)** below.*
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**Near on** – Toggles near decay on and off.
**Near start** – Determines where the "fade in" starts. If set at 0, light won't be visible directly in front of the light source, but will instead "fade in" from it. *See the **[Near Decay Start example](#NearDecayExample)** below*.
**Near end** – Determines where the "fade in" ends. After this threshold, the light is at its full value. *See the **[Near Decay End example](#NearEndExample)** below.*
**Far on **– Toggles far decay on and off.
**Far start** – Determines where the "fade off" starts. *See the **[Far Decay Start example](#FarStart)** below*.
**Far end** – Determines where the light reaches a value of 0, i.e. completely fades off. *See the **[Far Decay End example](#FarEnd)** below.*
**Preview** – Determines whether light decay is visible in the viewport. *Refer to the **[Preview Gizmo graphic](#previewGraphic)** to see how the Preview looks in the viewport.*
**Selected** – Light decay is visible only when the light is selected.
**Always** – Light decay is always visible in the viewport, even when the light is not selected.
**Never** – Light decay is not visible in the viewport.
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### Preview Gizmo
> Macro (anchor)
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### **Example: Near Decay Start**
This example shows the variances achieved by changing the Near decay start parameters only.
Near decay start 10, Near decay end 60
Near decay start 30, Near decay end 60
Near decay start 50, Near decay end 60
> Macro (anchor)
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### **Example: Near Decay End**
This example shows the variances achieved by changing the Near decay end parameters only.
Near decay start 0, Near decay end 10
Near decay start 0, Near decay end 30
Near decay start 0, Near decay end 50
> Macro (anchor)
---
### **Example: Far Decay Start**
This example shows the variances achieved by changing the Far decay start parameters only.
Far decay start 10, Far decay end 60
Far decay start 30, Far decay end 60
Far decay start 50, Far decay end 60
> Macro (anchor)
---
### **Example: Far Decay End**
This example shows the variances achieved by changing the Far decay end parameters only.
Far decay start 60, Far decay end 60
Far decay start 60, Far decay end 100
Far decay start 60, Far decay end 120
> Macro (anchor)
---
### **Example: Near and Far Decay**
This example shows some artistic lighting results achieved by using both Near and Far decay options.
Near decay start 0, Near decay end 15, Far decay start 30, Far decay end 60
Near decay start 20, Near decay end 35, Far decay start 40, Far decay end 55
Near decay start 30, Near decay end 60, Far decay start 90, Far decay end 120
## **Viewport Rollout**
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**Enable viewport shading** – When enabled, the effect of the light is visible in the viewport.** **
**Viewport wire color** – When enabled, the light's wireframe is displayed in the specified color in viewports.
**Intensity rays** – Helps with setting the desired streaks size of lights. This is just a visual tool and it depends on the **Multiplier** value under the General rollout. When the multiplier is increasing, the viewport indicators for VRayLight are expanding. If the multiplier is decreasing, the indicators are shrinking.
**Icon text** – Enables or disables the preview of the light name in the viewport.
**Texmap preview** – If a texture is used to drive the light, enabling this shows the texture in the viewport. This option is grayed out if your 3ds Max viewport is configured to use Nitrous viewport driver. To enable, switch to the direct3D viewport.
