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Posted by enkonyito at Nov 25, 2023, 7:07:31 PM

Light texture
Since version 7.0 of Sweet Home 3D, it is possible to add the lightSourceMaterialName property to an object so that it becomes a light.

This works well for objects that use color in locations that need to be lit like the OKH traffic light.

For those using a texture like Scopia's traffic lights, they emit white light.
If we replace the texture with a color, the light is colored but we lose the design.

Is there a way to combine a texture and its color so that the emitted light is correctly taken into account?
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TrafficLightOn-1.1.sh3f (12546 bytes) (Download count: 147368)

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Scopia_TrafficLightsOn-1.0.sh3f (104541 bytes) (Download count: 208570)

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EnkoNyito

Posted by Keet at Nov 25, 2023, 8:57:31 PM

Re: Light texture
The only thing I can think of is using a semi-transparent texture with a (white?) light behind it. That should emit the color as in the texture although maybe a bit washed out.

That is the trick I used for the digital clock I showed in this post: https://www.sweethome3d.com/support/forum/viewthread_thread,12755#60170
The segments of the numbers are not the lights but they are semi-transparent objects (d 0.8) with a light panel behind it. The same could be achieved with a texture that is a little transparent at the places where you want light to shine through with the color of the texture at those places.

For example the traffic lights could be created like I did the led segments and a grid texture with transparent holes could be placed in front to show a pattern. Or the same texture but where the holes have the color you want but a little transparent to show the light. The main trick is to not make the texture itself the light source but to place a light behind a semi-transparent texture.

The biggest advantage of this trick is that you only need one light source to allow multiple lights like for the traffic light. To switch one or more lights of you simply make a filler visible that replaces the transparent parts. They can have a color like the light is off or have less transparency so they seem more dimmed.
(That was the main reason for doing it this way: the need for multiple light sources on a single object which is unfortunately not possible.)

The most difficult thing will probably be creating the correct texture.
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