Light Source Tutorial

Basics

A lightpoint (glowing light source) is a non-physical object that shines a light. Unlike projectors or vehicle headlights, this light type cannot be directed into a beam and can only glow uniformously. The glowing does not cast shadows (only the sun or the moon can) and can go through walls.

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Lightpoint notions and commands were introduced in Arma, some commands were later added in Arma 3 (e.g setLightIntensity, flare commands).

A lightpoint is local to the computer where the script has been called; one player could see a light in the dark while another would not have such light "object" created.

Lightpoint with red colour, and blue ambient. Note how the red and blue hues mix to create purple.

Colour

Colour set via setLightColor determines the lens flare effect colour, as well as light's first colour.

Ambient

Colour set via setLightAmbient determines the outer colour shone by the lightpoint.

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Light colour does not affect AI, but ambient does.

Flare

The flare is the "colour point" centre that emits light. It can be visible or invisible (set by setLightUseFlare).

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Flare is not visible by day, even using setLightDayLight.

How to

The list of all lightpoint commands can be found in the Lights command group category.

Create a lightpoint

private _lightpoint = "#lightpoint" createVehicleLocal player modelToWorld [0,2,1.5];

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A lightpoint is local (and all the lightpoint commands take a local argument too), hence createVehicleLocal usage.

Set light colour

Colour

_lightpoint setLightColor [0.25, 1, 1]; // also defines Flare colour

Ambient Colour

_lightpoint setLightAmbient [1, 1, 1]; // sets the colour applied to the surroundings

Set flare

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For the flare to be visible, all the following values (use flare, size, visibility) must be defined and light colour set by setLightColor must not be [0,0,0].

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4

_lightpoint setLightUseFlare true;

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4

_lightpoint setLightFlareSize 1; // in meter

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4

_lightpoint setLightFlareMaxDistance 100; // in meter

Set light brightness

Set brightness

_lightpoint setLightBrightness 8;

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4

_lightpoint setLightIntensity 3000;

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4

_lightpoint setLightAttenuation [0, 2, 4, 4, 0, 9, 10]; // [start, constant, linear, quadratic, hardLimitStart, hardLimitEnd]

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Formula is 1 / (constant + linear × dist + quadratic × dist × dist) - see setLightAttenuation for more information.

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3

_lightpoint setLightDayLight true; // only for the light itself, not the flare

Delete lightpoint

deleteVehicle _lightpoint; // as simple as that

Full examples

Dark Souls

skipTime -daytime;

_lightpoint = "#lightpoint" createVehicleLocal [0,0,0];
_lightpoint attachTo [player, [0, 0, 1.5]];
_lightpoint setLightColor [0,0,0];
_lightpoint setLightAmbient [1,0.8, 0.25];
_lightpoint setLightBrightness 0.15;

Contact

skipTime -daytime;

private _position = player modelToWorld [0, 20, 1.5];
private _lightpoint = "#lightpoint" createVehicleLocal _position;
_lightpoint setLightColor [0,1,1];
_lightpoint setLightAmbient [0.2,0.0,0.3];
_lightpoint setLightUseFlare true;
_lightpoint setLightFlareSize 3;
_lightpoint setLightFlareMaxDistance 3.5;
_lightpoint setLightBrightness 4;
_lightpoint setLightDayLight true;

_lightpoint spawn {
	while { sleep 0.05; player distance _this > 2 } do
	{
		_this setLightBrightness 4 max (40 / (player distance _this));
	};
	deleteVehicle _this;
};

See also

• Command Group: Lights