Unreal Journey 4: Lighting
In this chapter, I want to share my experience with lighting in Unreal Engine. Setting up the lighting for a scene can be overwhelming, especially when you’re used to Unity’s system. Fortunately, Unreal Engine offers a handy tool under Window > Env. Light Mixer. This tool allows you to easily create and manage all the necessary game assets for lighting.
One of the coolest aspects of Unreal’s lighting system is that light intensity is measured in lux, similar to Unity’s HDRP. This allows for physically accurate lighting setups using real-life settings. All other light parameters can also be adjusted to match their real-life counterparts, which is fantastic for achieving realistic renders.
Key Features
Lux Measurement:
- Allows for physically correct images using real-life light settings.
Adjustable Point Light Length:
- You can change the length of a point light and utilize real-time area lights. This is something Unity lacks, making Unreal stand out in terms of flexibility.
Built-in Volumetrics:
- Unreal Engine comes with built-in volumetrics, eliminating the need for HDRP or third-party plugins to achieve cinematic volumetric fog. This is a significant improvement over Unity, where such features often require additional plugins.
Practical Application
For my scene, I aim to simulate large lights on top of the hangar. Using area lights, I experimented with different settings until I achieved a satisfactory result. At this stage, the lighting doesn’t have to be perfect as I can always tweak it later on.
Conclusion
Unreal Engine’s lighting tools provide a comprehensive and flexible system for creating realistic and visually stunning scenes. The integration of real-life light settings and built-in volumetrics makes it a powerful tool for any developer looking to create high-quality visuals. Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to explore and refine my scene.
