Hi,
This must have come up many times before but I can’t find an efficient answer to the problem.
I’ve built a road with 2 street lamps and used an array modifier to extend it and aligned it to a curve. I want to add area lights to each street lamp……..but I don’t really know how.
I’ve seen lots of tutorials using instances but this seems really convoluted. Surely geometry nodes should do it…..except I’ve never really used them.
Many thanks :-)
That's what I would do, I would put the street lamp with the light in a collection at the world origin, uncheck the collection from visibility with the box tick, and then instance that collection and array it. That way the light goes with it. Remember there is a limit of how many lights you can have in the scene with eevee, I think it's 128 lights at the moment.Â
Hi
Many thanks Omar. I've instanced the collection but I don't seem to be able to add a modifier to it? Am I missing something.
The modifiers tab isn't available for the collection instance, is it because it contains a light?
No, nothing to do with any of that. Instances are un-editable. As the name implies, it is instancing an original collection. You use them when you want to have many of the same assets and if you want to change something, then you don't have to go one by one, because when you edit the original, the change propagates. So instances are basically just copies that use very little resources and you can have a bunch of them and update instantly when you modify the original.
I'm really sorry, I'm missing something important here (or a lot!) - no matter what combination I try, I can't get the lights to duplicate.
Thanks again for your patience. 
For example, I have a collection called "Cube With Lights":
Then in the Add menu, at the bottom, in Collection Instance I can call upon that collection to be instanced.
Then I turn off the original just so I don't have them duplicated And I have my instance right there with my cube and my lights. I can instance how much ever I want. it uses a lots less resources and if I change the original, the changes propagate. Try it simple like that first to test it out.Â
Will do!
I really appreciate your time, thank you.
I'll stop pestering you now! :-)