mapleybacons
May 20th, 2021, 18:26
(For 5E)
I had some questions about lighting because the Falloff numbers didn't seem to be doing what I thought they would. So, I spent a couple hours to make this:
46924
Findings:
- Bright and Dim are ranges in feet from the light source.
- Dim must be greater than or equal to Bright and it will set itself equal to Bright if you try to set it lower. Something outside the Dim radius is heavily obscured (effectively cannot be seen).
- Falloff appears to be a percent. Falloff can only be set from 1 - 100 unlike Bright & Dim which do not have an upper bound. Falloff itself is a bit counterintuitive. Instead of light fading from the bright radius outward, Bright Falloff is applied inside the bright radius. So, a Bright radius of 20 and Falloff of 10 does not give you bright light for 20 feet and fading light for another 10 feet. Instead, you'll have bright light for 18 feet and fading light of 2 feet for a total of 20 feet of "bright" light. Rules-wise this makes sense... you have 20 of bright light, so the falloff percent is purely for aesthetics.
- Dim Falloff appears to work similarly. Falloff is aesthetic, but the Dim radius is what is used for rulings about whether a creature can see something that is lightly obscured (inside the Dim radius) or cannot see something that is heavily obscured (outside the dim radius). Aesthetically, Dim Falloff appears to apply between the Bright radius and Dim radius instead of from the light source.
Bright Falloff applies its gradient from bright light to dim light within the Bright radius. The gradient is applied starting at (Bright radius) * (% Falloff) from the radius edge.
ex1. Bright radius 10 and Bright Falloff 10 means falloff distance is ( 10*0.1 = 1 ) and will apply from 9 feet to 10 feet in the Bright radius.
ex2. Bright radius 10 and Bright Falloff 50 means falloff distance is ( 10*0.5 = 5 ) and will apply from 5 feet to 10 feet in the Bright radius.
Dim Falloff applies its gradient from dim light to dark between the Bright and Dim radii. This has some interesting effects such as reducing the Dim Falloff distance if the Bright radius is increased while the Dim Falloff remains constant. The formula for the Dim Falloff distance is something like: (Dim Radius - Bright Radius)*(% Dim Falloff).
ex1. Bright radius 10, Dim radius 50, Dim Falloff 25 means the Dim Falloff distance is 10 feet ( (50-10)*0.25 = 10 ) and will apply from 40 feet to 50 feet.
ex2. Bright radius 30, Dim radius 50, Dim Falloff 25 means the Dim Falloff distance is 5 feet ( (50-30)*0.25 = 5 ) and will apply from 45 feet to 50 feet.
I had some questions about lighting because the Falloff numbers didn't seem to be doing what I thought they would. So, I spent a couple hours to make this:
46924
Findings:
- Bright and Dim are ranges in feet from the light source.
- Dim must be greater than or equal to Bright and it will set itself equal to Bright if you try to set it lower. Something outside the Dim radius is heavily obscured (effectively cannot be seen).
- Falloff appears to be a percent. Falloff can only be set from 1 - 100 unlike Bright & Dim which do not have an upper bound. Falloff itself is a bit counterintuitive. Instead of light fading from the bright radius outward, Bright Falloff is applied inside the bright radius. So, a Bright radius of 20 and Falloff of 10 does not give you bright light for 20 feet and fading light for another 10 feet. Instead, you'll have bright light for 18 feet and fading light of 2 feet for a total of 20 feet of "bright" light. Rules-wise this makes sense... you have 20 of bright light, so the falloff percent is purely for aesthetics.
- Dim Falloff appears to work similarly. Falloff is aesthetic, but the Dim radius is what is used for rulings about whether a creature can see something that is lightly obscured (inside the Dim radius) or cannot see something that is heavily obscured (outside the dim radius). Aesthetically, Dim Falloff appears to apply between the Bright radius and Dim radius instead of from the light source.
Bright Falloff applies its gradient from bright light to dim light within the Bright radius. The gradient is applied starting at (Bright radius) * (% Falloff) from the radius edge.
ex1. Bright radius 10 and Bright Falloff 10 means falloff distance is ( 10*0.1 = 1 ) and will apply from 9 feet to 10 feet in the Bright radius.
ex2. Bright radius 10 and Bright Falloff 50 means falloff distance is ( 10*0.5 = 5 ) and will apply from 5 feet to 10 feet in the Bright radius.
Dim Falloff applies its gradient from dim light to dark between the Bright and Dim radii. This has some interesting effects such as reducing the Dim Falloff distance if the Bright radius is increased while the Dim Falloff remains constant. The formula for the Dim Falloff distance is something like: (Dim Radius - Bright Radius)*(% Dim Falloff).
ex1. Bright radius 10, Dim radius 50, Dim Falloff 25 means the Dim Falloff distance is 10 feet ( (50-10)*0.25 = 10 ) and will apply from 40 feet to 50 feet.
ex2. Bright radius 30, Dim radius 50, Dim Falloff 25 means the Dim Falloff distance is 5 feet ( (50-30)*0.25 = 5 ) and will apply from 45 feet to 50 feet.