About 3D illumination in ArcGlobe

Every 3D view needs a light source to illuminate it. You can configure this light source to achieve different effects within the view.

In ArcGlobe, the light can be applied as either ambient lighting or spot lighting. With ambient lighting, the default, a consistent light is applied to the entire globe. With spot lighting, known as sun lighting in ArcGlobe, the light source is given a location that results in parts of the globe being brighter than others. When using spot lighting, you can adjust the ambient brightness to darken or brighten the parts of the globe outside the spotlighted region.

For 3D faces, such as multipatches or extruded polygons, sun lighting will apply shading to the surfaces of the 3D shape. Sun lighting will not dynamically add shading to the 3D terrain.

Both ArcGlobe and ArcScene have a single configurable light source that is used when shading is enabled. See 3D illumination for more information on setting the properties of the light source for the 3D view.

Shading is either enabled or disabled for ArcGlobe's entire 3D view.