D3DLIGHTTYPE

The D3DLIGHTTYPE enumerated type defines the light type. This enumerated type is used with the D3DLIGHT7 structure.

typedef enum _D3DLIGHTTYPE { 
    D3DLIGHT_POINT         = 1, 
    D3DLIGHT_SPOT          = 2, 
    D3DLIGHT_DIRECTIONAL   = 3, 
    D3DLIGHT_FORCE_DWORD   = 0x7fffffff, 
} D3DLIGHTTYPE; 

D3DLIGHT_POINT

Light is a point source. The light has a position in space and radiates light in all directions.

D3DLIGHT_SPOT

Light is a spotlight source. This light is like a point light, except that the illumination is limited to a cone. This light type has a direction and several other parameters that determine the shape of the cone it produces. For information about these parameters, see the D3DLIGHT7 structure.

D3DLIGHT_DIRECTIONAL

Light is a directional source. This is equivalent to using a point light source at an infinite distance.

D3DLIGHT_FORCE_DWORD

Forces this enumeration to compile to 32 bits in size. This value is not used.

Remarks

Directional lights are slightly faster than point light sources, but point lights look a little better. Spotlights offer interesting visual effects but are computationally expensive.

Parallel-point lights are not supported in DirectX 7.0 and later. Therefore, this enumerated type does not contain the legacy D3DLIGHT_PARALLELPOINT member.

Requirements

  Windows NT/2000: Requires Windows NT 4.0 SP3 or later.
  Windows 95/98: Requires Windows 95 or later. Available as a redistributable for Windows 95.
  Version: Requires DirectX 2.0 or later.
  Header: Declared in d3dtypes.h.