For indoor and local lighting, consider the following:
The staples of real-time local lighting are spot lights and point lights. Fundamentally, both of these types of lights emit light from one point in space and have a limited range. The spot light has an additional limit by angle. For more information, see documentation on Types of light.
The main difference between spot lights and point lights is how they cast shadows and interact with cookies. Shadowing with a point light requires 6 shadow maps, while a spot light only needs one. For this reason, point lights are much more performance-intensive, and you should use them sparingly. Note that baked lights do not require shadow maps.
Another difference is that a cookie texture on a spot light is a simple 2D texture, while a point light requires a cube map, usually authored in a 3D modelling application. For more information, see documentation on Cookies.
Note: You can only use area lighting when baking lighting, unless you’re using the HD Scriptable Render Pipeline. There are area lights that can be rendered in real time when in HD SRP mode.
When selecting intensity for indoor lights, try to make sure no indoor lights have a greater intensity than the sun’s light. The sample Scene is set in a tunnel, so it’s very unlikely that there are any high intensity lights shining from the ceiling that exceed the brightness of the sun’s light:
When choosing the right color for your lights, consider the effect of the color and value chosen. When selecting color, try not to completely leave out any one of the color channels completely. This creates a light that is difficult to converge with the white point. For example, although it is technically a valid light color, the light color on the left image below removes all blue color from the final output:
Try not to limit your final color palette in the Scene, especially if you expect to do color grading later on.
Note: For advice on using a tonemapper to handle high intensity color values, such as colored light or fire, see High intensity color.
In Unity, emissive materials can contribute to lighting if Realtime GI or Baked lighting is enabled, giving the effect of area lighting. This is especially useful if Realtime GI is enabled. You can modify the intensity and color of the emissive surface and get feedback immediately, assuming that pre-computations have been done ahead of time.
For more information, see Emission.
At this point, you should have a good understanding of how to set up and light a Scene to look believable.
Did you find this page useful? Please give it a rating:
Thanks for rating this page!
What kind of problem would you like to report?
Is something described here not working as you expect it to? It might be a Known Issue. Please check with the Issue Tracker at issuetracker.unity3d.com.
Thanks for letting us know! This page has been marked for review based on your feedback.
If you have time, you can provide more information to help us fix the problem faster.
Provide more information
You've told us this page needs code samples. If you'd like to help us further, you could provide a code sample, or tell us about what kind of code sample you'd like to see:
You've told us there are code samples on this page which don't work. If you know how to fix it, or have something better we could use instead, please let us know:
You've told us there is information missing from this page. Please tell us more about what's missing:
You've told us there is incorrect information on this page. If you know what we should change to make it correct, please tell us:
You've told us this page has unclear or confusing information. Please tell us more about what you found unclear or confusing, or let us know how we could make it clearer:
You've told us there is a spelling or grammar error on this page. Please tell us what's wrong:
You've told us this page has a problem. Please tell us more about what's wrong:
Thanks for helping to make the Unity documentation better!
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
More information
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising. Some 3rd party video providers do not allow video views without targeting cookies. If you are experiencing difficulty viewing a video, you will need to set your cookie preferences for targeting to yes if you wish to view videos from these providers. Unity does not control this.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.