Getting Started with JavaFX 3D Graphics

Beta Draft: 2013-09-17

5 Lights

This chapter describes the Light API included in the JavaFX 3D graphics library.

Light is now also defined as a node in the scene graph. A default light is provided if the set of active lights contained in the scene is empty. Each light contains a set of affected nodes. If a set of nodes is empty, all nodes on the scene (or subscene) are affected. If a Parent node is in that set of nodes, then all of its children are also affected.

Light interacts with the geometry of a Shape3D object and its material to provide rendering result. Currently, there are two types of light sources:

• AmbientLight - a light source that seems to come from all directions.

• PointLight - an attenuated light source that has a fixed point in space and radiates light equally in all directions away from itself.

Example 5-1 shows the Light Class Hierarchy.

javafx.scene.Node
   javafx.scene.LightBase (abstract)
      javafx.scene.AmbientLight
      javafx.scene.PointLight

To create point light and add it to the Scene, do the following:

    PointLight light = new PointLight();
    light.setColor(Color.RED);
    

Use the following to add light to the scene graph:

    Group lightGroup = new Group();
    lightGroup.getChildren().add(light);
    root.getChildren().add(lightGroup);

Rotate the light 45 degrees with the following line of code:

    light.rotate(45);

To move the lightGroup and have light moves with it, use something similar to the following code.

     lightGroup.setTranslateZ(-75);

The setTranslateZ() method sets the value of the property translateZ, which is set to -75 in the example code above. This value will be added to any translation defined by the transforms ObservableList and layoutZ.