A point light radiates light in all directions from its location.
A point light radiates light in all directions from its location. A point light does not target an object. Use point lights for general lighting effects. A point light can be created by entering the POINTLIGHT command or selecting a point light from the Lights Dashboard.
You create a target point light with the TARGETPOINT command. The difference between the target point light and a point light is the additional target properties that are available. A target light can be pointed to an object. A target point light can also be created from a point light by changing the Targeted property of the point light from No to Yes. The additional target properties are enabled.
In the standard lighting workflow, a point light can be manually set to have its intensity diminish with respect to distance either linearly, according to the inverse square of the distance, or not at all. By default, the attenuation is set to None.
Point Lights in Photometric Workflow
A free point light can have photometric distribution properties. The attenuation for a photometric point light is always set to inverse square.
Additional properties become available for a Point light when the LIGHTINGUNITS system variable is set to 1 (International SI units) or 2 (American units) for photometric lighting. On the Properties palette, photometric properties are
The additional information about these properties are available under Lighting Properties. The following image is an example of a photometric point light and lighting properties palette with the photometric properties outlined:
