OpenGL Light

OpenGL Light is a compact tool that aims to simulate various lighting conditions on a set of materials. The program was created for educational purposes in order to showcase the impact of light on various 3D objects.

You can use this tool to demonstrate how the appearance changes when an object is illuminated from multiple sources. The program includes four light sources that can be turned on or off from the main window or by using the context menu.

The app includes several models which enable you to analyze the the shadows casted by each source. Thus, you can view the effect on increasingly complex objects from a sphere or soccer ball to a human body.

The color of each light source can be changed in order to display the effect of combining different colors. Unfortunately, selecting a certain color from a palette is not possible as you can only increase or decrease the intensity of red, green and blue.

An additional parameter is the object material which influences the shadow as well as the ambient color when it is reflected from a polished, metallic object.

Although the main goal is to compare multiple light conditions, the application does not include the option to take snapshots or save the parameters for later analysis.

The light position in the 3D environment is not very accurate as you are only able to place the source with the mouse cursor. Rotating the environment might improve the light placement accuracy in order to create the desired layout.

If you want to simulate the effect of using multiple light sources, OpenGL Light is a good tool for the job. You should use it in combination with a screen capture application in order to export the experiment output.