.fx Effect

Use FX Composer or similar to develop an .fx effect with vertex and pixel shaders and a small user interface. The effect shall read the position and beam direction of a light source and produce the look of a round spot light on the surface of the mesh. The aperture angle [Öffnungswinkel] of the spotlight can be controlled using a slider; the color of the spotlight and the color of the surface can each be controlled through color swatches in FX Composer. Only the diffuse lighting component needs to be generated.

Possible extensions:

Handle specular lighting as well
Let the spot light rotate automatically
Use a dynamically adjustable number of spotlights
Create a soft transition from fully lit to fully shadowed at the rim of the light beam
Use a texture as a "gobo" inside the light beam
Use .fx inside your own software (see last year's lecture)