directionalLight()

Creates a light that shines in one direction.

Directional lights don’t shine from a specific point. They’re like a sun that shines from somewhere offscreen. The light’s direction is set using three (x, y, z) values between -1 and 1. For example, setting a light’s direction as (1, 0, 0) will light p5.Geometry objects from the left since the light faces directly to the right. A maximum of 5 directional lights can be active at once.

There are four ways to call directionalLight() with parameters to set the light’s color and direction.

The first way to call directionalLight() has six parameters. The first three parameters, v1, v2, and v3, set the light’s color using the current colorMode(). The last three parameters, x, y, and z, set the light’s direction. For example, directionalLight(255, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0) creates a red (255, 0, 0) light that shines to the right (1, 0, 0).

The second way to call directionalLight() has four parameters. The first three parameters, v1, v2, and v3, set the light’s color using the current colorMode(). The last parameter, direction sets the light’s direction using a p5.Geometry object. For example, directionalLight(255, 0, 0, lightDir) creates a red (255, 0, 0) light that shines in the direction the lightDir vector points.

The third way to call directionalLight() has four parameters. The first parameter, color, sets the light’s color using a p5.Color object or an array of color values. The last three parameters, x, y, and z, set the light’s direction. For example, directionalLight(myColor, 1, 0, 0) creates a light that shines to the right (1, 0, 0) with the color value of myColor.

The fourth way to call directionalLight() has two parameters. The first parameter, color, sets the light’s color using a p5.Color object or an array of color values. The second parameter, direction, sets the light’s direction using a p5.Color object. For example, directionalLight(myColor, lightDir) creates a light that shines in the direction the lightDir vector points with the color value of myColor.