What is Luminance?

Luminance is an important attribute of any 3D visualization. It defines how bright or dim an object appears in the final image. In other words, it’s a measure of the light emitted by an object in a given direction.

There are two main types of luminance: surface luminance and point luminance. Surface luminance is the brightness of a 2D surface, while point luminance is the brightness of a single point in space.

Luminance can be measured in candela per square meter (cd/m2), which is also known as “nit”. The higher the nit value, the brighter the object appears.