NAME

       SoLight -

       The SoLight class is the base class for light emitting nodes.

       This node type is abstract and does not in itself provide any light sources to the scene,
       you need to use one of its subclasses.

SYNOPSIS

       #include <Inventor/nodes/SoLight.h>

       Inherits SoNode.

       Inherited by SoDirectionalLight, SoPointLight, and SoSpotLight.

   Public Member Functions
       virtual SoType getTypeId (void) const
           Returns the type identification of an object derived from a class inheriting SoBase.
           This is used for run-time type checking and 'downward' casting.
       virtual void callback (SoCallbackAction *action)

   Static Public Member Functions
       static SoType getClassTypeId (void)
       static void initClass (void)

   Public Attributes
       SoSFBool on
       SoSFFloat intensity
       SoSFColor color

   Protected Member Functions
       virtual const SoFieldData * getFieldData (void) const
       SoLight (void)
       virtual ~SoLight ()

   Static Protected Member Functions
       static const SoFieldData ** getFieldDataPtr (void)

   Additional Inherited Members

Detailed Description

       The SoLight class is the base class for light emitting nodes.

       This node type is abstract and does not in itself provide any light sources to the scene,
       you need to use one of its subclasses.

       There are a few important things to know about light sources in Coin. First of all, the
       more light sources you have in your scene, the slower the rendering will be. The impact on
       rendering speed is highly dependent on the graphics hardware and/or rendering subsystem
       software implementation (i.e. how optimized an OpenGL you or your users are running), but
       it could be severe.

       Another issue which is important to know is that OpenGL rendering engines usually have a
       fixed maximum number of available light sources which can be present in the state at the
       same time. If you reach the maximum number, further light sources will simply be ignored.
       The maximum number of light sources for OpenGL rendering can be found by using:

             #include <Inventor/elements/SoGLLightIdElement.h>
       #include <Inventor/nodes/SoSubNodeP.h>
             // ...[snip]...
             int nrlights = SoGLLightIdElement::getMaxGLSources();

       If you are clever with how you use light sources, you can get away with using a lot more
       lights in a scene graph than the max available from the rendering system. This is because
       light sources are stacked on the traversal state, just like other appearance data. So if
       you put light sources under SoSeparator nodes, they will be popped off and 'forgotten' for
       the remaining geometry of the scene graph after the subgraph below an SoSeparator has been
       traversed.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

   SoLight::SoLight (void) [protected]
       Constructor.

   SoLight::~SoLight () [protected],  [virtual]
       Destructor.

Member Function Documentation

   SoType SoLight::getTypeId (void) const [virtual]
       Returns the type identification of an object derived from a class inheriting SoBase. This
       is used for run-time type checking and 'downward' casting. Usage example:

       void foo(SoNode * node)
       {
         if (node->getTypeId() == SoFile::getClassTypeId()) {
           SoFile * filenode = (SoFile *)node;  // safe downward cast, knows the type
         }
       }

       For application programmers wanting to extend the library with new nodes, engines,
       nodekits, draggers or others: this method needs to be overridden in all subclasses. This
       is typically done as part of setting up the full type system for extension classes, which
       is usually accomplished by using the pre-defined macros available through for instance
       Inventor/nodes/SoSubNode.h (SO_NODE_INIT_CLASS and SO_NODE_CONSTRUCTOR for node classes),
       Inventor/engines/SoSubEngine.h (for engine classes) and so on.

       For more information on writing Coin extensions, see the class documentation of the
       toplevel superclasses for the various class groups.

       Implements SoBase.

       Reimplemented in SoDirectionalLightManip, SoSpotLightManip, SoPointLightManip,
       SoShadowDirectionalLight, SoShadowSpotLight, SoSpotLight, SoDirectionalLight, and
       SoPointLight.

   const SoFieldData * SoLight::getFieldData (void) const [protected],  [virtual]
       Returns a pointer to the class-wide field data storage object for this instance. If no
       fields are present, returns NULL.

       Reimplemented from SoFieldContainer.

       Reimplemented in SoDirectionalLightManip, SoSpotLightManip, SoPointLightManip,
       SoShadowDirectionalLight, SoShadowSpotLight, SoSpotLight, SoDirectionalLight, and
       SoPointLight.

   void SoLight::callback (SoCallbackAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoCallbackAction.

       Simply updates the state according to how the node behaves for the render action, so the
       application programmer can use the SoCallbackAction for extracting information about the
       scene graph.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoDirectionalLightManip, SoSpotLightManip, and SoPointLightManip.

Member Data Documentation

   SoSFBool SoLight::on
       Whether light source should be on or off. The on-flag defaults to TRUE.

   SoSFFloat SoLight::intensity
       Intensity of light source. This decides how much the light source should affect the colors
       etc of the scene geometry. Valid range is 0.0 (none) to 1.0 (maximum). Default value is
       1.0.

   SoSFColor SoLight::color
       Color of light source. Default is an all-white light source.

Author

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