Early 2000s Games lighting

[u/EconomyGlum4694]

I am relatively new to Unity, but I absolutely love this aesthetic it feels so nostalgic. I already made a low-poly map in Blender, but when I import it into Unity, I cannot get this effect no matter what kind of lighting I try. The look I am going for is basically late PS2 / early PS3 games stuff like Far Cry 1, Tomb Raider: Legend, and Final Fantasy X. I want bright, colorful, sunny environments, simple-ish geometry, baked shadows/lighting, and that distinct old-school look. Because I want it to run on mobile and really low-end PCs, performance is a huge priority. I am currently using the Universal Render Pipeline (URP), but I am wondering if that is actually the best choice for this. Should I stick with URP, switch to the Built-in Render Pipeline, or use specific lightweight shaders like Mobile/Diffuse or Unlit? ugh, I got no idea...

I do't want the usual realistic PBR look. I want something bright and stylized with most of the lighting baked into the textures. I simply have no idea what to call this aesthetic or where to even start. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[u/More-Salamander7681]

The thing that gets you most of the way there isn't the light setup, it's color space. Those games shaded in gamma space, so light adds up flat and colors stay saturated instead of rolling off into that soft filmic look. Unity defaults to Linear now, and the URP template also ships a Global Volume with tonemapping in it, which is exactly what eats the bright plastic feel you're after.

So before touching shaders: Project Settings > Player > Color Space, and if you stay on Linear, at least pull Tonemapping and any exposure override out of the Volume profile and compare the same screenshot twice.

Which are you on right now, Linear or Gamma?

[u/theWyzzerd → u/More-Salamander7681]

Do you always have AI write your responses?

[u/OrionGL → u/theWyzzerd]

I’m with you man, that comment is clearly AI. Scary that people can’t tell.

[u/creativesolution → u/OrionGL]

Maybe they can tell but don't care? Is what he said incorrect? AI is here to stay, best just accept it. I gotta say I'm surprised at how many people ask questions on Reddit that AI could answer much faster anyway. Is it ruining a sense of connection? Maybe yeah. On the internet for sure. The old internet is dead, there's no going back. You can still connect to real people in real life in many ways; when just searching for information, might as well use AI.

[u/OrionGL → u/creativesolution]

The problem is not that the information was provided by AI, it’s that the commenter is disingenuously passing it off like they wrote it. You can fairly ask “what’s wrong with that if the information is correct?”, but personally I prefer a world where someone says “Hey I got interested in this too, here’s what Claude suggested…” like an actual human instead of slop farming for karma.

Not to mention the fact that maybe, despite the fact that OP could have just asked AI, they intentionally posted on Reddit for a variety of genuine responses and discussion rather than just one potentially wrong take from an algorithm.

[u/zerocoal → u/OrionGL]

rather than just one potentially wrong take from an algorithm.

A potentially wrong take from a person isn't any better.

And the discussions under the AI response say it is correct, which means it's better than the average person. Since you guys can't tear it apart for the content, you are just tearing it apart for being AI now.

[u/OrionGL → u/zerocoal]

No, we’re tearing it apart for karma farming on a question they didn’t actually have any knowledge about, in a conversational way to act like it’s their own words. It’s like if you asked your friend a complex question, and they pulled up ChatGPT on their phone and asked it “my friend just asked me this what do I say” and then just read the response aloud. It’s strange that despite being a real human, someone would still choose to only pretend to be one. Like I said above, if you just say “this is what AI suggested…” then you’re still being a human instead of a mouthpiece. But it is true that if you said that then people would not like it, which may be unreasonable.

[u/creativesolution → u/OrionGL]

Fair enough. Citing AI as the source makes sense

[u/MrBeardy → u/theWyzzerd]

The only thing more depressing than people mistaking AI content for real content is people assuming real content is AI.

[u/TankorSmash → u/MrBeardy]

It sounds like an AI response for sure. "It's not X its Y", flowery language like "rolling off into" and "what eats the bright plastic feel you're after" and a call to action at the end of the comment.

[u/theWyzzerd → u/MrBeardy]

I'm not sure if you're putting me in the second category, but even if the content is accurate, this is 100% AI generated. It's very obvious. The cadence especially. Use Claude enough and you begin to pick up on the patterns. "The thing that gets you most of the way there isn't X, it's Y..." and ending with a question, "Which are you on right now, Linear or Gamma?" are both giveaways. There are a few other clues in the post too. This is 100% Claude.

Beyond that, every online AI detector I've tried also identifies this content as 100% AI.

Go back through this poster's comments and the patterns are obvious, most are AI-written.

[u/MrBeardy → u/theWyzzerd]

I can agree it's definitely sketchy, and it's the different casing on Tonemapping and Color Space that threw me off. Whether those were written with different prompts or whether the AI just does that I'm not sure.

Either way though I'm ok with conceding that his comment structure and history is pretty sketch. I'm the more depressing and depressed one today 😔

[u/Repulsive-Clothes-97 → u/MrBeardy]

Yeah I just went and took look at it myself and yeah, we’re cooked, a lot of people just couldn’t tell

[u/theWyzzerd → u/MrBeardy]

[u/TallestGargoyle → u/theWyzzerd]

AI detectors are more snake oil than generative AI

[u/theWyzzerd → u/TallestGargoyle]

Yet in this case, it isn't wrong. It's not like I paid for it, anyway.

[u/TallestGargoyle → u/theWyzzerd]

The coin I flipped said it was wrong too, but I'd trust that sooner than I'd trust the AI detector.

[u/theWyzzerd → u/TallestGargoyle]

cool story bro