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Global Lighting

The Lighting service offers a comprehensive set of properties that can be adjusted to update and customize the global lighting in your map. These properties are categorized into five key areas:

  1. Color:

  • Ambient: Sets the overall hue for the entire map, impacting both outdoor and indoor environments.

  • OutdoorAmbient: Configures the hue for outdoor areas, allowing you to simulate changes in ambient color throughout the day, such as warmer tones in the morning and evening and cooler tones in the late evening.

  • ColorShift_Top: Defines the hue that reflects from surfaces facing the sun or moon.

  • ColorShift_Bottom: Specifies the hue that reflects from surfaces facing away from the sun or moon.

  1. Intensity:

  • Brightness: Adjusts the intensity of illumination, enhancing the contrast between well-lit areas and shadows to simulate various lighting conditions.

  • ExposureCompensation: Applies exposure to the map, controlling the amount of light that reaches the camera. Lower values emulate under-exposure, while higher values mimic over-exposure, similar to photography.

  1. Shadows:

  • GlobalShadows: Enables or disables the rendering of shadows in the map.

  • ShadowSoftness: Controls the softness of shadows, ranging from hard edges (0) to soft edges (1).

  1. Environment:

  • ClockTime and TimeOfDay: Represent the current time of day in hours, with ClockTime ranging from 0 to 24 and TimeOfDay representing time through a 24-hour string. Changing one property automatically updates the other.

  • GeographicLatitude: Represents the geographic latitude in degrees, affecting the position of the sun and moon within the map. Note that this property does not alter ClockTime and TimeOfDay properties.

  1. Technology:
  • Configures the lighting technology used by the lighting generator to render lighting and shadows.

These properties provide extensive control over the lighting aspects of your map, enabling you to create dynamic and immersive environments with realistic lighting conditions.