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# MDLLight

The abstract superclass for objects that describe light sources in a scene.

```
class MDLLight
```

## Overview

When you load lights from an asset file using the [`MDLAsset`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLAsset) class or create lights when building an asset for export, you use one or more of the concrete subclasses [`MDLPhysicallyPlausibleLight`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLPhysicallyPlausibleLight), [`MDLAreaLight`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLAreaLight), [`MDLPhotometricLight`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLPhotometricLight), or [`MDLLightProbe`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLLightProbe).

## Topics

### Working with Lights

[`-  irradianceAtPoint:`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLLight/irradiance(atPoint:))

Returns the radiance of the light as received at a specific point in the same scene.

[`-  irradianceAtPoint:colorSpace:`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLLight/irradiance(atPoint:colorSpace:))

Returns the radiance of the light as received at a specific point in the same scene, expressed using the specified color space.

[`lightType`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLLight/lightType)

The type of the light.

[`colorSpace`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLLight/colorSpace)

The name of the Core Graphics color space to be used for interpreting the light’s color information.

### Constants

[`MDLLightType`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLLightType)

Options for the shape and style of illumination provided by a light, used by the [`lightType`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLLight/lightType) property.

## Relationships

### Conforms To

[`Equatable`](/documentation/Swift/Equatable)

[`Hashable`](/documentation/Swift/Hashable)

[`NSObjectProtocol`](/documentation/ObjectiveC/NSObjectProtocol)

[`CustomDebugStringConvertible`](/documentation/Swift/CustomDebugStringConvertible)

[`CVarArg`](/documentation/Swift/CVarArg)

[`CustomStringConvertible`](/documentation/Swift/CustomStringConvertible)

[`MDLNamed`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLNamed)

### Inherits From

[`MDLObject`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLObject)

### Inherited By

[`MDLLightProbe`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLLightProbe)

[`MDLPhysicallyPlausibleLight`](/documentation/ModelIO/MDLPhysicallyPlausibleLight)

---

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