Unit display for physical properties
Proposal
Maybe it could be nice to have a unit display on these dimensionful physical properties:
- Emission shader Strength property used on a Point , Spot or Area Light is the emissive power of that Light in Watts ( W ).
- Emission shader Strength property used on a Mesh or a Sun Light is the emissive power per surface unit of that Mesh or Sun Light in Watts per square meter ( W/m² ).
Source: Blender Manual, Cycles Emission shader node .
- Blackbody converter node Temperature property is in Kelvin ( K ).
- Wavelength converter node Wavelength property is in nanometers ( nm ).
Visual representations
8 Comments
Are the default values calibrated? and to what, Scale?
The idea is very good. Cycles, and EEVEE must have both their logic to simulate reality. Cycles must be able to adapt this "power" with a mathematically more accurate unit. In contrast, the Watt is a unit of energy, not brightness. Use the (lm, candela or lux) instead of the chosen unit system. It could help to represent the sources of lights in a scene: Candle: 12 lm 60W incandescent lamp: 750 lm ...
@valentinwn: Yes a luminous intensity input with the candela unit could be cool also : )
For now power is already an accurate dimension for light emission. In physics we can see power as an energy per time unit ( [power] = [energy] / T ). Power unit is Watt, this unit is used for real world lamps.
NO ! In reality, energy is the addition of all other emissions. The emission of light on all wavelengths, electromagnetism, heat etc .. So NO the "Watt" is NOT a good unit for this node.
@valentinwn: Yes indeed the energy of a lamp in the real world is under a radiative energy form (light) and also a thermal energy form. So yes, radiative energy is not 100% of the lamp energy in the real world.
how would blnder tell the difference between the two emission nodes?
@: I don't know, it could be the complicated part.
@: simple equation telling the input value in "x unit" is converted with the correct formula before being interpreted inside of blender