[Bf-funboard] Scaling Spotlights

[Robert Wenzlaff]

On Thursday 04 December 2003 18:37, Douglas Bischoff wrote:
> Hello:
>
> A recent discussion on elYsiun revealed that scaling a spot changes the
> apparent size of the drawn "dist cone" but does NOT actually change the
> "dist" value.
>
> One of these situations should exist IMO:
> 1) Scaling the spot scales ALL values (clipsta clipend dist and visual
> representation)
> 2) Scaling the spot scales visual representation only
>
> IMO, the only situation where someone would wish to scale a spot is if
> they are changing the scale of an entire scene... something I recently
> had to do when I was building an object that was over 200 blender units
> wide when I finished with it. I scaled the whole thing down... and MANY
> settings did not "hold."

A spot can be scaled in 1 direction to give it an eliptical or rectangular 
throw pattern.  I think 1 axis scaling a spotlight is intended to be a 
metaphore for adjusting the louvers on a real theatrical spot.  

"dist" is an abstract mathamatical approximation constant, and has no 
counterpart in reality.  In reality, spotlights go to infinity.

Z axis could be a metaphore for dost and other distance related settings.  The 
question is should distance related settings take SizeZ into account 
transparently, or should the stetting change on Z Scale making it behave like 
an IPO does?  It may not be clear that Z-Scale -> dist therefore I vote the 
latter, if with bother with persuing this metaphore.
--
Robert Wenzlaff                  rwenzlaff@soylent-green.com