Hardware Lighting - please make a 'face' setting not a prim setting.

I LOVE the new hardware lighting, but there is a rather serious problem with it. If I put a hardware light on a painting on a wall, that hardware light affects a radius circle around that painting, which is great. But what if the effect you're looking for is for just the sides of the paintings to give off light, but not the main face? Can't be done becase the hardware light is affixed to the prim, not the faces.

It would cost 4 more (mini-)prims to do this.

But a lighting effect isn't always radiant...sometimes it needs direction, such as spotlights, etc. It would be really nice to be able to make a flashlight or spotlight or sidelight from it.

Instead of attaching hardware light to prims, how about make them face-based? Just like textures, you could apply it to the whole prim, or just one face of a prim? This would allow you to surface something like a neon tube in a light-box (1 prim) that gives off light in two or three directions instead of all 6, and would be much more realistic.

Additionally, you should add an angular setting (x,y) to the light effect t allow for different spread on the lighting effect.

Duke Scarborough

Lots of people asked about this during the Preview (myself included)

I think the verdict was that it should be coming later, but it's not that easy to do atm. Probably in part due to having to remain using an outdated version of OpenGL.

I'm hoping it's soon too though, mainly for me so I can light individual floors on my house with a single large central light, without it spilling onto other floors.