The ball on the left has a "surface()" function for the primary diffuse calculations while the right ball has the "diffuselighting()" function.
I initially used "surface()" instead of "diffuselighting()" so that when the shader compiled it would compile as a surface shader and not a co-shader or displacement shader. If it did not compile as a surface shader Houdini would not read the color information properly and do either just the displacement or nothing at all. Rather annoying.
I continued using the "surface()" function in testing because I did not have to have the lights extraordinarily bright. Once I got into more complicated shaders, I had to start using the "diffuselighting()" function so that the renderer would recognize the specularlighting() function.
I initially used "surface()" instead of "diffuselighting()" so that when the shader compiled it would compile as a surface shader and not a co-shader or displacement shader. If it did not compile as a surface shader Houdini would not read the color information properly and do either just the displacement or nothing at all. Rather annoying.
I continued using the "surface()" function in testing because I did not have to have the lights extraordinarily bright. Once I got into more complicated shaders, I had to start using the "diffuselighting()" function so that the renderer would recognize the specularlighting() function.
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