Expert LightWorks Options Page 1 of 6

Visualization > PhotoRendering > Expert LightWorks Options

Expert LightWorks Options

The LightWorks Library contains some unique light objects that can enhance your renderings:
although they are lamps, they simulate ambient lighting. These objects are placed using
ArchiCAD’s Lamp tool: to find them, open the Lamp Settings dialog box and the LightWorks
Lights sub-folder from Libraries and are called SkyObject, SunObject and WindowLight.
You can adjust the intensity level of these lights in their respective settings dialog boxes.
However, the “Ambient” checkbox and its associated intensity value, in the LightWorks Effects
Panel of PhotoRendering Settings, will also affect these objects’ lighting effects.
As with all lights, you can turn them ON or OFF, and set their Light Intensity and Color.
For more information, see Object/Lamp Tool Settings.

SkyObject
SkyObject simulates the diffuse light effect of the sky (in the form of a large half-dome with a
number of individual distant light sources) for a “daylight” effect without having to add artificial
lighting manually. Its effect is so expansive that it doesn’t matter where you place it on the plan.
This object takes into account the sun direction as set in general rendering settings, so you need
not define this separately.
The Latitude Resolution and Longitude Resolution parameters along with Light Intensity
will define how many lights will be distributed evenly on the surface of a hemisphere. This object
is basically a hemisphere with a radius large enough so it is larger than the whole 3D Model.

The Number of Light Sources field shows how many lights will be generated based on the
above values. There are parameters for turning Shadow Casting and Soft Shadow on. You
can also set Shadow Quality and a Contour Pen for display in 2D. These shadow-related
parameters will only affect shadows created by the light sources coming from this lamp object.
To use this object, just place one copy anywhere in your Project.

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Note: LightWorks Rendering doesn’t produce proper image quality if the 3D data structure is
generated from a selection (e.g. with the Arrow tool or with the Marquee tool) and if this
selection does not contain the SkyObject (or other) lamp object(s).
In the following picture you can see Soft Shadows. See how fine the transition of the shadow is
on the floor of the corridor. This effect is possible because the SkyObject contains many lamps,
with the result that the lighting is diffuse, creating soft shadows, rather than concentrating the
entire light source at a single location, which would create hard shadows.

SunObject
Another lamp used to simulate exterior light is the SunObject lamp. It can be placed anywhere
on the Floor Plan, just like the SkyObject lamp. This lamp is used to simulate the effect of the
Sun in the rendering. In the case of this lamp, the light is coming from a distant source.

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Its use is also very similar to the SkyObject lamp. You can set light intensity, the color of its
light, shadow quality and make it cast Soft Shadows as well. Unlike in the SkyObject lamp,
where the program automatically calculates the number of light sources from the longitude and
latitude resolutions you entered, here you can directly specify the Number of Light Sources.
As you can see, with LightWorks, you can simulate the effects of the Sun in two ways:
1) by checking the Sun checkbox as a light source in the LightWorks Effects panel of the
PhotoRendering Settings dialog box, or
2) by placing a SunObject lamp anywhere on the Floor Plan.
These two methods have different effects. The major difference is that the light intensity of the
SunObject lamp can be varied in a much larger range. Although both can be used at the same
time, it is advisable to use only one of them at a time so it is easier to identify their effect on the
rendering.

WindowLight
While the SkyObject and SunObject lamps are used to simulate exterior light, WindowLight
simulates diffuse light in interior rooms that are generated by incoming light. WindowLight
comes close to simulating a radiosity effect.
This type of lamp must be placed on the inner side of any Window or Door. You can do this in
2D or 3D. The width and height of the WindowLight lamp object should be the same as those
of the Door/Window it is linked to. Make sure that the arrow representing the sun direction points
into the building. The object will be shown on both the Floor Plan and in 3D.

WindowLight also has the Cast Shadow, Shadow is Soft and Shadow Quality parameters to
control how shadows created by this light source are generated. The Rotation Angle
parameter is used when the object is placed next to a Skylight object in a Roof. See the effect
of the Shadow Quality parameter below. On the image on the left, Shadow Quality = 1. See
the crude graduation of shadows on the wall on the left and on the ceiling. In the image on the
right, Shadow Quality = 3. See how much smoother shadow tones are on the wall and ceiling.

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In the following picture you can see effects created by the SunObject and WindowLight lamp
objects. See the light areas on the ceiling of the corridor and the room close to the outside
windows, which is caused by the light generated by these lamp objects.

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Editing Shaders
You can also enhance your images by editing the applied shaders. Shader editing is possible
both for the entire image and for individual materials. Shader parameter controls can be of
various types: color tables, sliders, text and numeric fields, buttons or menus.
• You can apply and modify shaders for the Sun, the Foreground and the Background of
the image on the LightWorks Environment panel of the PhotoRendering Settings dialog
box. These shaders include parameters that affect the aspects of the shadows cast by the
sun and the appearance of elements in the foreground or the background.
• To modify the appearance and behavior of a given material, activate the Options >
Element Attributes > Materials dialog box. Each material can have up to six shaders
associated to it that will define its Color, Reflectance, Transparency, Displacement (or
bumping), Texture Space and Pipeline (or emission) attribute. You can also load
predefined settings from a large number of archive files that replicate real-life materials such
as stretcher bricks, polished plastic, galvanized metal or mown grass.
For more details on shader editing, see Exterior LightWorks Example .

LightWorks Tips
Since the LightWorks Rendering Engine is both hardware and memory-intensive, here follow
some suggestions for speeding up your work while using it.
• Uncheck the Reflection checkbox in the Effects field of the LightWorks Effects panel of
the PhotoRendering Settings dialog box. Reflection is probably the one factor increasing
rendering time the most. If you turn Reflection off, you will still be able to set lighting
correctly, yet generate faster renderings.
• Choose the Off checkbox in the Antialiasing field of the LightWorks Effects panel of the
PhotoRendering Settings dialog box. This will also decrease rendering time while showing
the effects of lights correctly.
• When setting lights and materials select a small model piece with the thick (multi-story)
marquee and experiment with that. Then, when all is set, you can render the whole model.
• The SkyObject and SunObject lamps work quite well even when the number of light

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sources is set to low numbers (even as low as 4). At the same time, setting them to such
low values will substantially decrease their memory requirements and increase rendering
speed.
• You can experiment with your setting choosing hard shadows. This will increase speed
over using soft shadows while the character of the rendering will not change markedly.
• You can check the settings of your picture on a smaller rendering, thereby saving time. You
may want your final rendering to be 1600x1200 pixels, but you can check and set your
settings on a 400x300 pixel rendering as well. You can also zoom on details and create
small detail renderings of those.
Besides a good camera position, a good rendering requires good lights and good material
shaders. You should set lighting on a small model or partial model without Reflection and
Antialiasing, few light sources and Hard Shadows. Setting materials can also be done on a
partial model. Then, when all is set, Reflection, Antialiasing and Soft Shadows can be turned
on a full model.

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