it easier to see which face is which. Types of lighting When a shader computes the result color, it uses a lighting model to determine the amount of light reflected at specific points on the surface. Different lighting models can be combined with different shading techniques — while lighting says how much light is reflected, shading determines how this information is used in order to compute the final result. It may for example compute lighting only at specific points and use interpolation to fill in the rest. The shader may also decide about how many light sources to take into account etc. Ambient lighting An ambient light source represents an omni-directional, fixed-intensity and fixed-color light source that affects all objects in the scene equally (is omni-present). During rendering, all objects in the scene are brightened with the specified intensity and color. This type of light source is mainly used to provide the scene with a basic view of the different objects in it. This is the simplest type of lighting to implement, and models how light can be scattered or reflected many times, thereby producing a uniform effect. Ambient lighting can be combined with ambient occlusion to represent how exposed each point of the scene is, affecting the amount of ambient light it can reflect. This produces diffused, non-directional lighting throughout the scene, casting no clear shadows, but with enclosed and sheltered areas darkened. The result is usually visually similar to an overcast day. Point lighting Light originates from a single point and spreads outward in all directions. Spotlighting Models a spotlight: light originates from a single point and spreads outward in a cone. Area lighting Light originates from a small area on a single plane. (A more realistic model than a point light source.) Directional lighting A directional light source illuminates all objects equally from a given direction, like an area light of infinite size and infinite distance from the scene; there is shading, but cannot be any distance falloff. This is like the sun. Distance falloff Theoretically, two surfaces which are parallel are illuminated virtually the same amount from a distant unblocked light source such as the sun. The distance falloff effect produces images which have more shading and so would be realistic for proximal light sources. The left image doesn't use distance falloff. Notice that the colors on the front faces of the two boxes are exactly