Preview of a simple scene using Mental Ray Glare and Glow Shaders in Studio 3D MAX to mimic the glare/flaring from a Halogen light with patterned lens and a powerful blue-tint Xenon light.

For a detailed look into this lighting setup, please go to this thread on CG-Cars.com (free registration required) where I explain the textures (NOTE: this was done in Max7 - newer versions will handle this differently - I may update this section to cover that):

http://www.cg-cars.com/forum/showthread.php?t=822

Download the EXAMPLE SCENE Max7 35 KB

The Flash animation below shows the two lights with glare/streak effects as the camera sweeps around - also used is the puddle texture that is explained in detail in the Puddle Texture section :

Flash animation showing sweep around lights - Move mouse over to use control panel to play again

Preview Images showing the same scene as above with the addition of an image to control streaking:

Mental Ray Glare (streak) used for effect on the lights - with the Puddle Texture

The Xenon light has a stronger setting for the Glare shader and is effected more by streaking

Looking straight on to the lights sources - the Halogen light is correctly focusing the light directly into the camera

Bright hotspot created by intense Xenon settings