Overview
A distant light is a infinitely far light source. It is generally used to replicate the effect of the sun.
A distant light in the GafferThree node parameters and in the Viewer.
Object Tab Parameters
The Object tab of a distant light.
Visible to Camera
Turn this parameter on to make the sun disk visible in the rendered image background.
Transform
Specifies the translation, rotation and scale applied to the distant light. Only the rotation has an effect when rendering, but adjusting the translation and scale can be useful when manipulating a distant light in the viewport.
Material Tab Parameters
The Material tab of a distant light.
Normalize Intensity by Area
Turning this parameter on will divide the total intensity of the distant light by its area, allowing adjustments to the angular diameter or the scale of the light without affecting the intensity.