9.5.2

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Lens Glow
The Lens Glow data type is a container for a complete data set — in this case, all the information
required to control lens glow for a light source. This data type cannot be converted to other types.
Link
The Link data type contains information on the various elements in a CINEMA 4D scene, including
information on tags and materials as well as objects. The Link type cannot be converted to other data
types. The purpose of the Link data type is to allow you to select a scene element (such as an object,
material or tag) for closer examination. For example, you can use the Link data type to add a user
data box in the Attribute manager. You can then assign materials, tags and objects by dragging and
dropping them into the box. See also ‘Object’, below.
Matrix
A matrix is a group of vectors, such as an object’s global matrix, that contains the object’s position
vector and three vectors for each object axis. The axis vectors represent not only the direction of the
object, but also its scale (the scale is dened by the length of each axis vector). Therefore the global
matrix gives you access to the object’s position, scale and rotation.
The four vectors are stored in the following registers of the global matrix: V0 for the position vector
(called the Offset vector); V1 (X-axis); V2 (Y-axis) and V3 (Z-axis). Using these registers, you can read
or overwrite any vector, such as V2 for the object’s Y-axis.
Normal
A normalized vector is a vector of the same direction, but with a length of 1.
Object
The Object type is a sub-type of Link and is used for object data only. Among other things, this data
type gives you access to an object’s global and local matrices. See also ‘Link’, above.
Priority
The Priority data type contains the XPriority and its numerical value, plus details on the order of
evaluation. This data type is used for the priority port of tags.