Headlamp on only while in preview?

mambanegra

I like having the headlamp on while I set my scene up, but it is usually way too strong or just not what I want when I am doing renders. Is there a way to have it turn itself "Off" during the render itself? I see the "Auto Headlamp" toggle in Render Settings/General, but changing that doesn't seem to help. Any thoughts?

Taoz

I always set it to "Off" on my cameras, and then use Ctrl+L to toggle Preview Lights on/off (which btw doesn't seem to work in the 2025 Alpha). . 

Richard Haseltine

Turn off the headlamp and Preview Lights (in the WIndow menu) - you will then get a non-rendering pseudo-headlamp.

mding

Many thanks, @Taoz and @RichardHaseltine, very useful!

I have stumbled on a "Headlampblocker" in  several light fx packages, e.g. 

https://www.daz3d.com/iradiance-studio-hdris-for-iray 

https://www.daz3d.com/iradiance-studio-hdris-volume-2-for-iray or 

https://www.daz3d.com/fast-production-lights-for-iray

And it does seem to do the work (= on with iray, off in texture view) if you keep the headlamp on auto. But no garanties, maybe you own such a product and can give it a try.

Richard Haseltine

Headlamp Blockers are just dark lights, they were used in older versions of DS to avoid the ehadlamp with lights that did not have DzLight-derived nodes to trigger the usual auto-shutoff of the headlamp.

mding

@RichardHaseltine: Ah, thank you. So it must be a very weak light, as I didn't notice a difference in IRAY. But in this case it is more precise to handle it like you and Taoz said.

mambanegra

The solution that @Taoz and @RichardHaseltine provide works perfectly! Thank you very much. 

jmucchiello

Set "Auto Headlamp" to "Never" in RENDER Settings. Then you can turn the lamps on and off and it won't be used during renders.