This is an important change. Starting from now, all lights have a finite
influence radius (similar to the old sphere option for BI).
In order to avoid costly setup time, this distance is first computed
automatically based on a light threshold. The distance is computed
at the light origin and using the inverse square falloff. The setting
can be found inside the render settings panel > shadow tab.
This light threshold does not take the light shape into account an may not
suit every case. That's why we provide a per lamp override where you can
just set the cutt off distance (Light Properties Panel > Light >
Custom Distance).
The influence distance is also used as shadow far clip distance.
This influence distance does not concerns sun lights that still have a
far clip distance.
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This change is important because it makes it possible to cull lights
an improve performance drastically in the future.