---
title: "The Three Light Types"
canonical: "https://rmanwiki-27.pixar.com/space/RU/631242816/The%20Three%20Light%20Types"
format: markdown
---
> ℹ️ <span style="color: #ffffff">**Analytic Lights**</span>

![RenderManStudio_Header_1.png](media://aafaa562-05c7-4a3f-9bb8-c6dc2ad0a414)

RenderMan includes a set of built-in basic geometric lights. These specialized shapes - **DomeLight, DistantLight, RectLight, DiscLight, **and** SphereLight***** ***(particularly the latter two) - can provide superior sampling behavior, compared with arbitrary geometry.


> ℹ️ <span style="color: #ffffff">**Mesh Lights**</span>

![RenderMan_MeshLights.png](media://de093be5-05c9-4e55-9f77-8838b9f1bd7d)

These are great for using arbitrary shapes in lighting. These consume more memory since they are geometry and complex shapes, which may increase noise. These can make use of visibility like any other object: camera, shadow/transmission, and indirect visibility.


> ℹ️ <span style="color: #ffffff">**Emissive Surfaces**</span>

![RenderMan_Glow.jpg](media://8df90ef6-c9a4-4107-854a-1e23819677df)

These typically use a constant bxdf or "glow" parameter to indirectly light a scene. This is inefficient and should usually be avoided, but it may be helpful for texture-mapping "lights" onto futuristic objects and panels with low emission values.

If you want to do this efficiently, try using a textured mesh light