`lighting`

Selects the lighting method used to shade surfaces and patches.

Category: Graphics > Formatting and Annotation

Syntax

lighting flat

Computes one shade per face. Fast, shows the facets.

lighting gouraud

Interpolates the shade smoothly across each face, giving the best look on curved surfaces.

lighting none

Turns the lights off for the surfaces.

lighting(ax, option)

Applies the option to the axes ax.

Description

lighting sets the face and edge lighting mode of every surface and patch in the axes. The result shows only when a light exists, which you add with light, lightangle or camlight.

Gouraud shading looks smooth because it blends the colors computed at the vertices. Flat shading is quicker and is often the better choice to see the shape of a coarse mesh.

Input arguments

option: One of 'flat', 'gouraud', 'none'.

Example

Smooth lighting on a sphere

[x, y, z] = sphere(30);
s = surf(x, y, z);
shading flat
lighting gouraud
camlight
axis equal
class(s)

Output

ans = 'matlab.graphics.chart.primitive.Surface'

lighting