View source for BloomEntity

[[File:Bloom_lens_flare.gif|thumb|Lens flare effect of bloom.]]
[[File:Bloom_effect_entity.png|thumb|BloomEntity]]

==General==
Bloom is a shader effect used in game engines to emulate imaging artifacts of real-world cameras, like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_flare lens flare], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range#Photography finite dynamic range] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airy_disk airy discs] caused by the diffraction of light.

In game engines, bloom effect can be used to create a dream-like visual style or emphasize a magically glowing objects. With the right settings it can also enhance the photorealism of the scene by emulating the above mentioned effects.

==BloomEntity in the editor==

BloomEntity (BE) can be found from "InstanceBase/Entity/SceneEntity/BloomEntity". BE is a global effect and it has many properties in it's GlowComponent, but most of these don't need to be touched by the user. The two most important ones are:
* Factor
** Determines the weight of the particular BE, if there are more than one in the scene. Mostly used for animation purposes.
* StreakLength
** Setting this to 0 removes the lens flare effect, which is dependant on the relative direction of the BE.

===Properties of glowing objects===

Normal entities can be made to glow, like the collisions used in the pictures. Every entity with a ModelComponent has four properties that determine their behaviour with BE. These are:
* SelfIllumination
** The colour of the self illumination. Like the name says, used for objects that are supposed to be self illuminated, like sun, moon and lamps.
* SelfIlluminationFactor
** The strength of the self illumination. Example values used for different entities are 1000 for sun, 2 for moon and 15 for a bright lamp.
* GlowAmountColor
** The colour of the glow effect. Like self illumination, but this adds a soft halo around the object.
* GlowAmount
** The strength of the glow effect. Values usually around or less than 1.

Usually self illumination and glow are used together to achieve the best result.

<gallery>
File:self_ill.png|Self illumination.
File:Glow.png|Glow.
File:Combined.png|Self illumination and glow combined.
</gallery>