Lighting

To make 3D pictures more realistic, the program allows adding and adjusting light sources. The program simulates the sun/moon light and the light from electric lamps and open fire. If enabled, reflections and shadows are shown in the 3D view.

The rendering quality depends significantly on the settings from the 3D Settings tab of the program Preferences.

To see reflections and shadows in the 3D view, you should turn them on. To do this, use the View > 3D View > Rendering Quality menu command or the 3D toolbar.

To render light, turn "Lights and Shadows" on.
This can be done using the "Render Quality" control in the 3D toolbar.

Without Lights and Shadows	Lights Only	Lights and Shadows

The Inspector window lets you control the properties of light sources.
The light sources are listed on the Light Properties tab. They can be switched on and off by clicking the "bulb" icon.

Sun/Moon Light

The sun light settings are available in the Light Properties tab of the Inspector window.

The Daytime drop-down list lets you select phases of daylight: Morning, Day, Evening and Night.

The Sun (or the Moon) is always present in the project, you cannot add or delete them.

If you don't need sun light and want to use the light from lamps only, click the sun/moon icon on the Light Properties tab to reduce the light (a "cloud" will appear near the sun/moon icon).

Artificial Lighting

To add a lamp, drag it into your project from the object library, using the Furnishing > Lamps section of the Library.

Lamps and candles behave in almost the same way as ordinary pieces of furniture.

The Light Properties tab of the Inspector tab of the Inspector window has the light parameters section. There, you can adjust luminosity and color of the light source, and turn it on/off.

If a lamp has three bulbs, you can usually control them separately (it depends on the specific 3D model).

For more information about lighting, see Lighting Techniques and Tessellation

Note: If your project has a lot of light sources and other objects, the 3D scene may be rendered quite slowly when you "walk" in it. In this case it is recommended to turn on the lights and shadows only in case it's necessary. For more information on performance, see the Troubleshooting section.