XenoDream Program: Lighting window

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Note: this page describes v1.6, and does not yet include v2 features.

The Lighting window is where you post-process the rendered data with 3D lighting and other effects. In general it is a non-destructive process because the output goes to a different picture. Trying out different styles is much faster than rendering again, and you can save different pictures created from one render. You can also use combinations of lighting and 2D filtering in different sequences.

The left side of the window contains the general controls.

• Preview lighting in practically real time at 100%; or zoom out to 50%/33%/25%.
• Randomize lighting parameters.
• Temporarily store and recall lighting with memory spots.
• Permanently save lighting as presets. 550 presets are supplied, sorted in categories such as Art, Ceramic, Metal, Glass, Underwater.
• Lock buttons allow subsets of parameters to be preserved when randomizing or opening presets or memory spots.
• If you render with multiple regions, you can assign and adjust lighting independently for each region of the object.
• If the alpha channel exists, you can choose whether to use it for transparent features, or ignore it.

The right side of the window contains collapsible panels for the groups of lighting parameters. Most controls can have negative values for inverse effects.

3D light sources are the main feature of the lighting window.

• Up to 15 light sources plus ambient, each with color and intensity.
• Lights can have shadows if they were rendered at that position.
• Surface properties (smoothing, diffuse reflection, shininess, metallicity) can be set per light, allowing composite or anisotropic effects.

Surface cleaning allows the depth map to be changed, for defect removal or dramatic filtering.

• Fill holes where the background shows through, from single pixels to larger holes.
• Fill in part or all of the background, incrementally or automated.
• Remove single pixels or those with few neighbours.
• Pits filtering provides subtle to strong noise removal.
• Polish gives a very smooth surface while preserving edges and features fairly well.
• Permanently apply smoothing or sharpening effects.

Depth controls allow variation of the apparent depth of the object.

Color controls provide adjustment of the contribution from rendered color. Iridescence controls provide a variety of metallic and rainbow banding effects, based on the light sources.

Reflection and refraction effects are based on environment mapping from the object itself and/or another picture.

Glow effects use the object colors modified by light colors, or can be modified or replaced by a glow color. Haze allows distance blending effects such as fog or underwater, or fading to background. The background source can be a color or a picture.

Examples of different lighting applied to the same render of an object.