Ambient light simulates indirect lighting.
It is basically a constant level of lighting that's added to a surface's color, regardless of orientation.
The ambient lighting effect is the product of the light source's ambient color and the material's ambient color.
glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_AMBIENT, [0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 1]) glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT, GL_AMBIENT, [1, 1, 1, 1])
There is also a global source of ambient light, controlled by glLightModel
glLightModelfv(GL_LIGHT_MODEL_AMBIENT,[.1, .1, .1, 1])