Unity displays different properties in the Light InspectorA Unity window that displays information about the currently selected GameObject, asset or project settings, allowing you to inspect and edit the values. More info
See in Glossary depending on the render pipelineA series of operations that take the contents of a Scene, and displays them on a screen. Unity lets you choose from pre-built render pipelines, or write your own. More info
See in Glossary that your Project uses.
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Type | The current type of light. Possible values are Directional, Point, Spot and Area (Rectangle or Disc light). For information on these values, see Types of Light. |
| Range | Define how far the light emitted from the center of the object travels (Point and Spot lights only). |
| Spot Angle | Define the angle (in degrees) at the base of a spot light’s cone (Spot light only). |
| Color | Use the color picker to set the color of the emitted light. |
| Mode | Specify the Light Mode. Possible modes are Realtime, Mixed and Baked. For information on these values, see Light ModesA Light property that defines the use of the Light. Can be set to Realtime, Baked and Mixed. More info See in Glossary. |
| Intensity | Set the brightness of the light. The default value for a Directional light is 0.5. The default value for a Point, Spot or Area (Rectangle or Disc)light is 1. |
| Indirect Multiplier | Use this value to vary the intensity of indirect light. If you set Indirect Multiplier to a value lower than 1, the bounced light becomes dimmer with every bounce. A value higher than 1 makes light brighter with each bounce. This is useful, for example, when a dark surface in shadow (such as the interior of a cave) needs to be brighter to make detail visible. If you want to use Enlighten Realtime Global IlluminationA lighting system by Geomerics used in Unity for lightmapping and for Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination. More info See in Glossary, but want to limit a single real-time Light so that it only emits direct light, set its Indirect Multiplier to 0. |
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Shadow Type | Determine whether this Light casts Hard Shadows, Soft Shadows, or no shadows at all. Hard Shadows produces shadows with a sharp edge. Hard shadows aren’t realistic compared to Soft Shadows but they involve less processing, and are acceptable for many purposes. Soft shadows also tend to reduce the “blocky” aliasing effect from the shadow map. |
| Baked Shadow Angle | If Mode is set to Baked or Mixed, Type is set to Directional, and Shadow Type is set to Soft Shadows, this property adds some artificial softening to the edges of shadows and gives them a more natural look. |
| Baked Shadow Radius | If Mode is set to Baked or Mixed, Type is set to Point or Spot ,and Shadow Type is set to Soft Shadows, this property adds some artificial softening to the edges of shadows and gives them a more natural look. |
| Realtime Shadows | These properties are available when Mode is set to Realtime or Mixed, and Shadow Type is set to Hard Shadows or Soft Shadows. Use these properties to control real-time shadow rendering settings. |
| Strength | Use the slider to control how dark the shadows cast by this Light are, represented by a value between 0 and 1. This is set to 1 by default. |
| Resolution | Control the rendered resolution of shadow maps. A higher resolution increases the fidelity of shadows, but requires more GPU time and memory usage. |
| Bias | Use the slider to control the distance at which shadows are pushed away from the light, defined as a value between 0 and 2. This is useful for avoiding false self-shadowing artifacts. See Shadow mapping and the bias property for more information. This is set to 0.05 by default. |
| Normal Bias | Use the slider to control distance at which the shadow casting surfaces are shrunk along the surface normal, defined as a value between 0 and 3. This is useful for avoiding false self-shadowing artifacts. See Shadow troubleshooting for more information. This is set to 0.05 by default. |
| Near Plane | Use the slider to control the value for the near clip plane when rendering shadows, defined as a value between 0.1 and 10. This value is clamped to 0.1 units or 1% of the light’s Range property, whichever is lower. This is set to 0.2 by default. |
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Cookie | Specify a Texture mask through which shadows are cast (for example, to create silhouettes, or patterned illumination for the Light). For more information, see Cookies. |
| Draw Halo | Tick this box to draw a spherical HaloThe glowing light areas around light sources, used to give the impression of small dust particles in the air. More info See in Glossary of light with a diameter equal to the Range value. You can also use the Halo component to achieve this. Note that the Halo component is drawn in addition to the halo from the Light component, and that the Halo component’s Size parameter determines its radius, not its diameter. |
| Flare | If you want to set a Flare to be rendered at the Light’s position, place an Asset in this field to be used as its source. |
| Render Mode | Use this drop-down to set the rendering priority of the selected Light. This can affect lighting fidelity and performance. |
| Auto | The rendering method is determined at run time, depending on the brightness of nearby lights and the current Quality settings. |
| Important | The light is always rendered at per-pixel quality. Use Important mode only for the most noticeable visual effects (for example, the headlights of a player’s car). |
| Not Important | The light is always rendered in a faster, vertex/object light mode. |
| Culling MaskAllows you to include or omit objects to be rendered by a Camera, by Layer. See in Glossary |
Use this to selectively exclude groups of objects from being affected by the Light. For more information, see LayersLayers in Unity can be used to selectively opt groups of GameObjects in or out of certain processes or calculations. This includes camera rendering, lighting, physics collisions, or custom calculations in your own code. More info See in Glossary. |
If you create a Texture that contains an alpha channel and assign it to the Cookie variable of the light, the cookie is projected from the light. The cookie’s alpha mask modulates the light’s brightness, creating light and dark spots on surfaces. This is a great way to add complexity or atmosphere to a sceneA Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info
See in Glossary.
VertexLit shadersA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary can’t display Cookies or Shadows.
Note that shadows are disabled for directional lights with cookies when forward renderingA rendering path that renders each object in one or more passes, depending on lights that affect the object. Lights themselves are also treated differently by Forward Rendering, depending on their settings and intensity. More info
See in Glossary is used. It’s possible to write custom shaders to enable shadows in this case; see documentation on writing surface shaders for further details.
Light