Spotlights in Iray

Nyghtfall3D

I'm rendering a project in Iray, with spotlights as the only light source.  I can see black boxes where the emitters are.  Is there a way to hide them?  I've tried switching Render Emitter to Off in the Parameters tab, but that had no effect.

Tim N

Seeing the outline of a spotlight in the viewport render is normal. Are you also seeing them in the final render?

SimonJM

What sort of spotlight?  Is it an 'in-built' DS spot, with the photometric option set, or is it a mesh light?  As you are seeing 'something' I am guessing it's likely to be a mesh light, which means you shoudl be able to toggle visibilty for it via the scene tab and still have it emit light.

Oso3D

Simon: at least in Iray that doesn't work -- if the spotlight isn't visible, it doesn't cast light.

There are tricks to making meshlights invisible (or less visible) while casting light. The easiest is giving it a cutout of .001.

A Point spotlight is also invisible, though obviously the sharp shadows may be undesirable.

 

Tobor

If black, you're seeing the back side of the emitter. It's white if the camera is on the emission side (or you have two sided emitter set to on).

Either is easy to fix: select the spotlight, and find the Light/Render Emitter switch. Turn it off. This should work, and not sure why it isn't for you. 

Note that emitters are always rendered in reflections, regardless of this setting. This is by design. You will also always see the emitter if the light shines through an object, including volumetric obhjects like God rays.

As usual, a sample picture is worth a thousand posts back and forth.

Nyghtfall3D

Tobor said:

Note that emitters are always rendered in reflections, regardless of this setting. This is by design. You will also always see the emitter if the light shines through an object, including volumetric obhjects like God rays.

 

That's what's happening. I'm using spotlights with God rays and mirrors. No worries then.

Thanks.