What would this enhancement be for?
Rendering
Describe your enhancement suggestion in more detail
Light cookies are often used to simulate how light might interact with its immediate surroundings, like a light fixture, but without using shadows (since they can only be hard shadows). The problem is that, in real life, the further away from the source a shadow is cast, the softer it is (assuming a non-point light obviously).
One solution that might help with this would be to have multiple light cookies that blend between each other depending on the distance from the source. So for example, a spotlight could have a sharp cookie texture for short distances, then a blurrier one for medium distances, and finally a blurrier one for longer distances. This would also give mappers a lot of freedom with custom designs that match specific environments, different light shapes, or other creative uses.
Another solution, though less flexible, would be to have focus parameters for the cookie. At the given distance/radius, the projected image is sharp, and as it projects closer or further, the image gets blurrier according to some given values. This would save up on the texture atlas by offloading the task to the GPU, and would be more intuitive for users, but would limit how they design custom lights.
What would this enhancement be for?
Rendering
Describe your enhancement suggestion in more detail
Light cookies are often used to simulate how light might interact with its immediate surroundings, like a light fixture, but without using shadows (since they can only be hard shadows). The problem is that, in real life, the further away from the source a shadow is cast, the softer it is (assuming a non-point light obviously).
One solution that might help with this would be to have multiple light cookies that blend between each other depending on the distance from the source. So for example, a spotlight could have a sharp cookie texture for short distances, then a blurrier one for medium distances, and finally a blurrier one for longer distances. This would also give mappers a lot of freedom with custom designs that match specific environments, different light shapes, or other creative uses.
Another solution, though less flexible, would be to have focus parameters for the cookie. At the given distance/radius, the projected image is sharp, and as it projects closer or further, the image gets blurrier according to some given values. This would save up on the texture atlas by offloading the task to the GPU, and would be more intuitive for users, but would limit how they design custom lights.