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title: DirectionalLight category: Core layout: docs

DirectionalLight

A light that gets emitted in a specific direction. This light will behave as though it is infinitely far away and the rays produced from it are all parallel. The common use case for this is to simulate daylight; the sun is far enough away that its position can be considered to be infinite, and all light rays coming from it are parallel.

A common point of confusion for directional lights is that setting the rotation has no effect. This is because three.js's DirectionalLight is the equivalent to what is often called a 'Target Direct Light' in other applications.

This means that its direction is calculated as pointing from the light's Object3D#position to the DirectionalLight#target position (as opposed to a 'Free Direct Light' that just has a rotation component).

This light can cast shadows - see the DirectionalLightShadow for details.

Code Example

// White directional light at half intensity shining from the top.
const directionalLight = new THREE.DirectionalLight( 0xffffff, 0.5 );
scene.add( directionalLight );

Constructor

new DirectionalLight( color : number | Color | string, intensity : number )

Constructs a new directional light.

color | The light's color. Default is 0xffffff.
---|---
intensity | The light's strength/intensity. Default is 1.

Properties

.isDirectionalLight : boolean (readonly)

This flag can be used for type testing.

Default is true.

.shadow : DirectionalLightShadow

This property holds the light's shadow configuration.

.target : Object3D

The directional light points from its position to the target's position.

For the target's position to be changed to anything other than the default, it must be added to the scene.

It is also possible to set the target to be another 3D object in the scene. The light will now track the target object.

Source

src/lights/DirectionalLight.js