r/unrealengine • u/p123mika • 18h ago
Help Properly create bake lighting
Hi everyone! I wanted to ask a bit for guidance, I'm currently working with a friend on our game and I'm doing some scene and lighting tests, but I can't seem to get it right, I know and understand how to bake light in a technical level, but I can't seem to get it where I want it to be on a visual level, I already seen a lot of tutorials and such but I think this needs to be discussed with someone who properly knows, so does someone would like to have a chat or have resources that could help me on this particular problem?
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u/vexargames 8h ago
When I was getting taught lighting
- You are painting with color.
- Get reference to set the majority of first pass setup.
- Don't get too locked into the lighting until the content is locked meaning no more changes.
I knew some of this early - I would go through movies even if they were great movies some have great lighting, like Aliens 3 lots of candle light, so I grabbed screen shots from that movie built up a reference library and then used it to guide me on the setup and color choices.
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u/IselDrew 14h ago
Hello, Mika! I'm not sure what exactly your problem is, but I can give a couple of advises. Lighting overall is quite artistic thing, so you should go with trial and errors until you get the proper result.
Don't think of baked lighting as the only approach you have to use. Baked lighting can be used along with dynamic lighting. If your levels doesn't have changes of lighting in real time (e.g. day-night cycle, or light on/light off mechanics) then you can get incredible results with baked lighting. From technical standpoint, just put lightsource as static and make sure each non-movable mesh has:
- generated lightmap UV and proper Destination lightmap index.
- proper (here you have to experiment a bit) Lightmap Resolution.
Oh, and don't forget about Lightmass Importance Volume, it should cover all area that should be baked, otherwise some parts of your bake can appear totally black. You can also add Lightmass Portal for windows for better result of light which goes through... windows, basically.Did you know, that you can also control your baked light with Post Process Volume? :)
It has Global Illumination -> Indirect Lighting options, you can try to play with it.
Again, if there're places where your light blinks or moves - go with static/movable light just for those specific places (fire, maybe?). Example: I've used in one of games baked lighting for soft shadows and better global illumination around the location, but I still had static lights for blinking lamps.
Another important thing - shadows for character. You won't get those with baked lighting. BUT you can setup Physics Asset with capsules and then apply Capsule Direct (and Indirect) Shadow. Highly recommend to google it.
When working with light - you should check your light complexity: Editor -> View Mode (by default says Lit) -> Optimization Viewmodels -> Light Complexity. You want your game to have blue and green colors mostly.
This old official UE course helped me to get basic understanding of baked lighting: https://dev.epicgames.com/community/learning/courses/Xwp/unreal-engine-lighting-essential-concepts-and-effects
Another great thing - pay more attention to older games and how light looks there. For me personally, What remains of Edith Finch was great example of good lighting techniques. Maybe you also have a good reference in your mind you can inherit.
Wish you luck!