Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2012 Essentials: AUTODESK OFFICIAL TRAINING GUIDE

3ds Max Lights

3ds Max has two types of light objects: photometric and standard. Photometric lights are lights that possess specific features to enable a more accurate definition of lighting, as you would see in the real world. Photometric lights have physically based intensity values that closely mimic the behavior of real light. Standard lights are extremely powerful and capable of realism, but they are more straightforward to use than photometric lights and less taxing on the system at render time. In this book, we will only discuss standard lights.