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maya: instancing lights

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rooster mod
Hi, I want to have a bunch of instanced lights so when I alter the value of one, the rest change. When I duplicate one with instance ticked, the new one doesn't do nowt (nee light).

NE clues?

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  • Daz
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    Daz polycounter lvl 18
    Dunno about clues, but it works fine for me. Duplicate a light as an instance, change values of either and the parent or child updates. Or are you trying to do something more complex?
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    when I was doing my demo reel I had issues with instanced lights not functioning correctly. I think you can use set driven keys to control your lights, It's been a long time since I've done anything with them though.
  • cholden
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    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    Sounds normal, rooster, but do they work when you render the scene?
    I think it has limitations such as only 8 lights will show anyway. After that, they don't appear to work until you render the scene, and possibly it's a memory saving option because maya figures you'll have way more than 8 instanced lights. Anyway, my old work around for full levels with a lot of lights was putting lights of certain type or specific areas in their own layer. Not sure if that helps for what you're doing.
  • rooster
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    rooster mod
    ah, no its not the viewport display. Max also has that 8-light limit, or is it the video card? (I think software rendering displays all lights in viewport)
    anyway, no I mean I duplicate a light, and it renders, but if I do it with instancing turned on, nada. Maya 6 bug?
  • noritsune
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    noritsune polycounter lvl 17
    I have run into this same bug, for what it's worth. Software Renderer should render all the lights in a scene regardless of number - but any light I had instanced wouldnt show up in the render.

    Curious to see if anyone has solved this.
  • Zergxes
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    Zergxes polycounter lvl 18
    Have you tried the attribiute spreadsheet? Tends to help me when I have a bunch of lights to tweak.
  • Gizmo
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    Gizmo polycounter lvl 17
    No you can't instance lights in Maya, it notes that in the help. You can connect each attribute up to the other lights though of course; but this is a big waste of time if you have more than 2 frown.gif
  • rooster
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    rooster mod
    damn that kind of sucks, I'll give the attribute spreadsheet a look I guess
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