Light Modes

Set the Mode of a Light

Choose a Light Mode

You can choose whether lighting is pre-calculated (baked), updated in real-time, or a combination (mixed), depending on the performance and visual quality you aim for:

Baked: Provides essential illumination without significant performance impact.
Mixed: Ensures a stable lighting setup and preserves shadows.
Realtime: Adds dynamic effects and realism, often in more advanced or interactive environments.

The following table compares light modes:

Light Mode	Baked	Mixed	Realtime
Typical use case	Background and ambient lights	Fixed lights	Moving, destructible, or flickering lights
Performance impact at runtime	None	High	Highest
Iteration time	Slowest, due to Unity baking both direct and indirect lighting	Slow, due to Unity baking indirect lighting	Fast
Direct lighting	Baked	Real-time	Real-time
Indirect lighting	Baked	Baked	No, unless you use Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination.
Specular highlights	No	Real-time	Real-time
Shadows from dynamic GameObjects	Baked	Real-time	Real-time
Shadows from static GameObjects, up to Shadow Distance	Baked	Real-time, or baked into shadow mask textures	Real-time
Casts shadows from static GameObjects, beyond Shadow Distance	Baked	No shadows, or baked into shadow maps if you use the optional Shadowmask Lighting Mode.	No shadow
Contributes to Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination	Yes	Yes	Yes

Additional resources

Enable shadows

Light Modes

Set the Mode of a Light