Lighting in 3ds Max

Target Spotlight
A spotlight casts a focused beam of light like a flashlight, a follow spot in a theater, or a headlight. A target spotlight uses a movable target object to aim the light.

Free Spotlight
A spotlight casts a focused beam of light like a flashlight, a follow spot in a theater, or a headlight. Unlike a targeted spotlight, a Free Spot has no target object. You can move and rotate the free spot to aim it in any direction.

Target Directional Light
Directional lights cast parallel light rays in a single direction, as the sun does (for all practical purposes) at the surface of the earth. Directional lights are primarily used to simulate sunlight. You can adjust the color of the light and position and rotate the light in 3D space.

Free Directional Light
Directional lights cast parallel light rays in a single direction, as the sun does (for all practical purposes) at the surface of the earth. Directional lights are primarily used to simulate sunlight. You can adjust the color of the light and position and rotate the light in 3D space.

Omni Light
An Omni light casts rays in all directions from a single source. Omni lights are useful for adding "fill lighting" to your scene, or simulating point source lights.

Skylight
The Skylight light models daylight. You can set the color of the sky or assign it a map. The sky is modeled as a dome above the scene.

mr Area Omni Light
The area omni light emits light from a spherical or cylindrical volume, rather than from a point source, when you render a scene using the mental ray renderer. With the default scanline renderer, the area omni light behaves like any other standard omni light.

mr Area Spotlight
The area spotlight emits light from a rectangular or disc-shaped area, rather than from a point source, when you render a scene using the mental ray renderer. With the default scanline renderer, the area spotlight behaves like any other standard spotlight.