This page covers:

  • What are Impact Lights
  • Brightness behaviour
  • Candle flicker
  • Properties

What are Impact Lights

Impact lights

Impact Lights are "point" light sources, primarily intended to illuminate the piano to help show which keys are currently down. They are the only light sources in Keysight that can cause shadows. Impact lights can also optionally be re-configured to move around the Backdrop and provide an alternate way of visualising notes without using Note Objects:

Alternative impact lights

Impact Light features

Brightness behaviour

(Advanced) Effects > Impact Lights > Brightness

Impact Lights handle brightness a little differently to other objects. Max brightness is the brightness of Impact Lights for maximum (127) MIDI velocity note events, with lower MIDI velocity notes giving proportionally less brightness until reaching 0.00 with 0 MIDI velocity. This does not use MIDI velocity floor/ceiling values found under Core > Simulation.

Time to reach target brightness operates similarly to lifetime values of Keypresses, with Impact Lights fading in to their target brightness over the given time. This time is also used as a fade-out (as long as Impact Lights are not using Use dynamic simulated note activity die-off and Extend duration of impact lights with sustain pedalling).

Fade amount by fade-in time controls the fade animation pacing during the fade in/out duration.

Warning

While this is implemented as a graph, do not use flat values! This will functionally remove any animation. The only intended edit on this graph is the curve property to change the way the animation "feels". A single -1.0 to 1.0 slider controlling curve direction and amount would have been immune to accidental animation breakage, but it also would have been less intuitive to use.

Candle flicker

(Advanced) Effects > Impact Lights > Candle flicker

Candle flicker

When enabled, this allows Impact Lights to change their brightness over time at random. All three options allow velocity-driven values. This is (obviously) useful for creating a candle-like effect, but it can also be configured to give more of an arcing-electricity effect as seen in the "Electric" default preset.

Brightness deviation

Determines the minimum and maximum multiplier value allowed when picking a new random brightness target. If given a Max brightness of 0.50 and a Brightness deviation of 0.1, candle flicker can randomise brightness between 0.45 and 0.55.

Flicker speed

Determines the speed that the Impact Light performs candle flickering. This is a non-linear random range without an easy mapping of values. Be cautious when increasing flicker speed while also having large Brightness deviation, as this can get very uncomfortable to look at!

Displacement

Determines the distance that Impact Lights will shift around within while candle flickering. Distance values are in cm and apply to all three axes, but be cautious with larger values for Displacement as even a tiny shift in position can strongly affect shadow casting.

Properties

(Advanced) Effects > Impact Lights > Properties

Toggles

  • Cast shadows
    • When enabled, Impact Light will cast shadows from other objects in the scene (typically just the Piano). This requires Graphics > Quality, Shadow quality to be set to anything other than Off.
  • New impact light destroys existing light
    • Similar to Note Object truncation, when enabled, new Impact Lights on the same pitch as an existing Impact Light will cause the first Impact Light to behave as though released. This stops multiple Impact Light instances overlaying when set to Use dynamic simulated note activity die-off.
  • Use dynamic simulated note activity die-off
    • When enabled, Impact Lights fade out over time while held based on simulated note activity die-off. Releasing the key (even if sustain pedal is down) will release the Impact Light unless the following setting is also enabled:
  • Extend duration of impact lights with sustain pedalling
    • While enabled, Impact Lights also respect the sustain pedal and do not release when keys are released.

Position

  • Z-height above backdrop
    • Governs Z-axis position of Impact Lights, in cm, above the Backdrop. This is critical to the appearance of shadows on the Piano, with lower values giving stronger shadowing.
  • Y-displacement
    • Governs Y-axis position of Impact Lights from the origin point of the scene. This can be used to slightly adjust shadow angle, or set to be dynamic with velocity to radically change how Impact Lights are used in the scene.

Lighting influence over distance

  • Lighting radius
    • All lights must have a maximum influence radius. This setting governs Impact Light radius (not diameter) and is measured in cm. Try to keep this as low as feasible to save on performance.
  • Lighting fade-over-distance speed
    • In the real world, light falloff is a 1/r^2 relationship. This relationship is configurable in Keysight (and thus non-physical), with higher values giving sharper light strength falloff. At 0.00, lighting is completely uniform over the influence radius. At 1.00, light falloff is linear.

Falloff

Light channels

See here for more information about light channels.