Using planet02 as a light source.

[TheBadger]

Hi,

I know this has been discussed, but I could not think of what keywords I could use to narrow my search.

So. I have a planet02 object thats looking real nice now! But I would also like to use it as a light source.

On my default planet I have atmo turned off for testing purposes. I also have the atmo disabled on planet02.

Planet 02 is very large, and is getting a lot of light, were can I play with the settings so that my default planet is also lit by planet02? Perhaps even, only lit by 02?

I would also like to find and read other threads of a related nature if anyone remebers any:)

Thank you guys.

[TheBadger]

Ambient oscillation helps a lot, but I dont know how to get it to only effect my default planet. For a still I can render twice and photoshop. But for an animation that would be a mess. Any ideas?

[rcallicotte]

No ideas without playing with it.  What are you using in Planet02 to light everything up?  Without an atmosphere, it becomes more challenging to light a planet.

[Dune]

Maybe a third planet inside (so invisible), with a very luminescent surface? Or an invisible planet inside with a very luminescent atmo?

[TheBadger]

@calico
file is here http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=14707.0

@Dune
I will try that. This ties in to what Im trying to do with opacity and luminosity and light in my objects. I like to get a very broad view of things. Thank you!

[Matt]

Maybe a third planet inside (so invisible), with a very luminescent surface? Or an invisible planet inside with a very luminescent atmo?

That won't work, because the visible planet will prevent the light from coming out of the planet inside it.

[Oshyan]

Having tried to create a realistic moon that provided light onto an Earth-like planet, with the moon lit only by the sun, I suspect this will be rather difficult. It will probably help a lot that your 2nd "light source" planet is very large in your planet's sky, but it's still a long distance for GI to affect, I would think. It's a very challenging setup for a GI system with real-world scales in use.

Matt, does it seem at least theoretically possible?

- Oshyan

[Matt]

GI will naturally provide some light from the bright planet if the planet fills enough of the sky. If it's anything like the image you posted recently with Jupiter filling the whole background, then GI should work well enough. If you prefer more light you can increase the values on the Enviro Light node.

You can also add light sources between the landscape and the background planet and make them very, very bright. Keep tacking on 0s to the intensity until you see something. Normally they would light the background planet too, but if you put them closer to the landscape than the background planet you can make use of the "max distance" parameter on the light source. That causes a linear falloff that ends in zero light at the max distance.

Matt

[TheBadger]

Thanks guys!

I will try this. if I can get it working it should look pretty cool when its all done.