yeah I want it to behave directionally, so all light in the area comes from x to negative x, but the light just comes from the center of the gizmo with the option checked.. I can't notice any difference using that option to the normal mode there's an arrow that appears when you set it to that, but I can't see the bake…
Think I've cracked it.. I got the area light to behave that way by unchecking diffuse and checking ambient in the light, using cylinder and along axis light mode. using mental ray bake, I can get the right results.. Cheers everyone who replied!
I hope this is the effect you're trying to achieve. If you notice the bottom example, the power of the lights dropped as I added more. (I bumped the light scaling factor in this one). You're gonna have to adjust for that. Also, Maya only does 8 lights at a time. Better example of it ignoring face direction: And they come…