Hi EGIE,
The diameter setting controls the size of the light source, which in turn controls the softness of shadows.
Although Shaderlight artificial light sources aren’t directly visible in the render, rays from other surfaces in the scene are sent towards the light in order to find out whether there are any objects in the way – if there are, the light gets blocked and a shadow is cast. When the light has a non-zero diameter, some areas near the edges of shadows will be able to ‘see’ the light while others will be blocked, resulting in partial shadowing and a softening of the shadow edge – the penumbra.
Increasing the diameter of a light increases the size of the penumbra that the light casts – i.e. increases the size of the soft, part-shadowed area. Prior to SketchUp 5 (when the feature was introduced), or when the diameter is set to the default of zero, the light has no physical size and there is no soft penumbra to shadows cast by the light.
Regards,
Shaderlight support
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