Surface light in BGE ?

Hello,
I would like to illuminate my scene with something that is like the real sun, i.e. the light is not a point but a surface (disc).
Is it possible in BGE, or is there a way to fake this ?
Thank you in advance

Have you tried the sun lamp?

yes, I’m using a sun lamp but as far as I’ve understood, this kind of lamp gives “only” a direction.
I’m trying to create a lunar eclispe with umbra AND penumbra. Using a sun lamp gives me the umbra but no penumbra.
So I’m looking for a lamp that is not a point or a “direction” but has some “surface” and can cast shadow in the BGE.

Use a spot lamp and fiddle with the settings to get a 180 degree size.

This is possibly the most realistic kind of lighting you will be able to get in BGE:

This is probably the closest you’ll get to “real” realtime lighting in Blender.

You could try baking a ray shadow with a softside set to 2 or something, it creates a nice effect, if it’s not really nessesary to be realtime. As for area lights they are really reallistic and great for fake reflections, but are the heaviest in performance terms

Try to use 2 or more sun (or spot) lamps. I did so earlier in Doom3 and i think it will work in BGE too

Like what Redneck said, it can be achieved with 2 spot lamps , and can also be tweaked with material nodes using the new lamp data node (better blending between the umbra and penumbra for example).

Blend:

Attachments

shadow_penumbra.blend (478 KB)