Beam Exponent math?
Mathematically, how does the "Beam Exponent" setting on a spotlight work? Exactly how does it factor into the spotlight intensity?
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Mathematically, how does the "Beam Exponent" setting on a spotlight work? Exactly how does it factor into the spotlight intensity?
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Should cause it to become much bigger with small numbers as exponents, exponetial increases are usual bigger than linear increases
Exponential is 2^1 = 2, 2¨2 = 4, 2^3 = 9, 2^4 = 16, 2^5 = 32, ...
compared to linear which is just 2, 3, 4, 5, ...
The exact forumala that beam light function will be something different those. I don't know the formula except exponent is a hint it's exponental function
I’m aware of what “exponent” means. :)
I’m looking for something a mite more substantive (and technical) than that.
Just google the mathematics of how a spotlight works then when you increase light intensity or write a tickewt to support and maybe the DS developers will give you the equation given that they know it. They might not as it's likely supplied via some 3rd party SDK..
Digging around in the documentation center, I found the description "rate of decay from center to edge". If I were writing a function to meet that description, I'd probably go with something like this:
i=c*(1-(r/R)^x), where i=intensity at selected point, c=center intensity, r=radius to selected point, R=outer radius, x=beam exponent.You might try a few test renders to see if the actual behaviour is consistent with that.
Video if you prefer those:
https://www.lynda.com/Maya-tutorials/Understanding-light-decay/96718/108852-4.html
Which is not relevant as in Iray local lights always decay with inverse square falloff. I believe it is as Murgatroyd says - decay from centre to edge of the beam - not distance falloff.
It is the same but presented differently.
https://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/ASTR110L_S03/inversesquare.html
No, it isn't - the beam exponent is not distance fall off, that link is again about distance fall off.