The main control in this group is a droplist that selects the feature to be controlled: the background colour, the ambient light, the camera, the three directional lights or the animation 'selected frame indicator' (causes the background to change to this colour on the selected keyframe). Depending upon the feature selected, the four sliders, the check box and 'Change' button become enabled as appropriate.
The required check box: directional lights: is this directional light required? This control is also enabled for the background colour, if a image backdrop has been loaded (use image as backdrop or background colour)
The 'Change' button: for all but the camera. The patch to the left of the button is the colour associated with the selected feature. Pressing the button displays a standard Windows colour selection box to change that colour. Note for the background colour, this is associated with which Sim (Sim1 or Sim2) is currently selected, so they can have different background - to reminder you which is being controlled.
The remaining four controls, the sliders, control the position of lights and cameras around the characters. The characters can be thought of as being at the centre of a sphere, with the lights/camera positioned on the sphere and pointing in towards them.
The 'Direction' slider moves the lights/camera 360 degrees around the characters (think longitude)
The 'Elevation' slider moves the lights/camera 180 degrees from below the characters to directly overhead (think latitude)
The 'Zoom' slider moves the camera only toward/away from the characters (think radius)
The 'Offset' slider moves the centre of the sphere. Without this, the camera tends to be looking at the characters feet! The centre of view can be moved up and down (useful when zoomed in).
When background colour is selected, an additional button 'Add picture' is available. This enables you to load a BMP image to use as a backdrop. Note: the program unloads this image if you resize the window, and has to be reloaded.
These select the camera angle, and whether or not the characters are rotating on their axis. The NS, SE etc positions are intended to mimic the views of the characters in the game. When a camera position is selected from the droplist, the camera slider controls move to reflect the same position.