Why Diffuse Light use max(N · H, 0) instead of just letting it be negative?












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In Cg tuts, Diffuse Section




Surfaces that face away from the light will produce negative dot-product values, so the max(N · L, 0) in the equation ensures that these surfaces show no diffuse lighting.




My question is why not just leave it be negative? IMO, both the negative and zero will make the color be black.










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    1














    In Cg tuts, Diffuse Section




    Surfaces that face away from the light will produce negative dot-product values, so the max(N · L, 0) in the equation ensures that these surfaces show no diffuse lighting.




    My question is why not just leave it be negative? IMO, both the negative and zero will make the color be black.










    share|improve this question

























      1












      1








      1







      In Cg tuts, Diffuse Section




      Surfaces that face away from the light will produce negative dot-product values, so the max(N · L, 0) in the equation ensures that these surfaces show no diffuse lighting.




      My question is why not just leave it be negative? IMO, both the negative and zero will make the color be black.










      share|improve this question













      In Cg tuts, Diffuse Section




      Surfaces that face away from the light will produce negative dot-product values, so the max(N · L, 0) in the equation ensures that these surfaces show no diffuse lighting.




      My question is why not just leave it be negative? IMO, both the negative and zero will make the color be black.







      lighting cg






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      asked 1 hour ago









      AlexWei

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          If lighting with multiple lights, they add together to make the final lighting value. A negative light would darken other lights, which is incorrect. This is also true if you add in specular reflections, emissive lighting, or other sources of lighting. The negative lighting from one source of lighting would darken some other source of non negative lighting.






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            Because negative shading values are undefined and don't play well with tonemapping. It is preferable to use values in $[0,1]$ for low-dynamic-range or $[0,+infty)$ for high-dynamic-range images.






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              2 Answers
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              2 Answers
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              If lighting with multiple lights, they add together to make the final lighting value. A negative light would darken other lights, which is incorrect. This is also true if you add in specular reflections, emissive lighting, or other sources of lighting. The negative lighting from one source of lighting would darken some other source of non negative lighting.






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                2














                If lighting with multiple lights, they add together to make the final lighting value. A negative light would darken other lights, which is incorrect. This is also true if you add in specular reflections, emissive lighting, or other sources of lighting. The negative lighting from one source of lighting would darken some other source of non negative lighting.






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                  If lighting with multiple lights, they add together to make the final lighting value. A negative light would darken other lights, which is incorrect. This is also true if you add in specular reflections, emissive lighting, or other sources of lighting. The negative lighting from one source of lighting would darken some other source of non negative lighting.






                  share|improve this answer












                  If lighting with multiple lights, they add together to make the final lighting value. A negative light would darken other lights, which is incorrect. This is also true if you add in specular reflections, emissive lighting, or other sources of lighting. The negative lighting from one source of lighting would darken some other source of non negative lighting.







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                  answered 40 mins ago









                  Alan Wolfe

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                      Because negative shading values are undefined and don't play well with tonemapping. It is preferable to use values in $[0,1]$ for low-dynamic-range or $[0,+infty)$ for high-dynamic-range images.






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                        1














                        Because negative shading values are undefined and don't play well with tonemapping. It is preferable to use values in $[0,1]$ for low-dynamic-range or $[0,+infty)$ for high-dynamic-range images.






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                          Because negative shading values are undefined and don't play well with tonemapping. It is preferable to use values in $[0,1]$ for low-dynamic-range or $[0,+infty)$ for high-dynamic-range images.






                          share|improve this answer












                          Because negative shading values are undefined and don't play well with tonemapping. It is preferable to use values in $[0,1]$ for low-dynamic-range or $[0,+infty)$ for high-dynamic-range images.







                          share|improve this answer












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                          answered 1 hour ago









                          Hubble

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