Lighting Settings Asset

A Lighting Settings Asset represents a saved instance of the LightingSettings class, which stores data for the Baked Global IlluminationA group of techniques that model both direct and indirect lighting to provide realistic lighting results. Unity has two global illumination systems that combine direct and indirect lighting.: Baked Global Illumination, and Realtime Global Illumination.
See in Glossary and the Realtime Global Illumination systems. The Unity Editor uses this data when it precomputes lighting data for 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 that uses one or both of these systems.

You can assign the same Lighting Settings Asset or instance of the LightingSettings class to more than one Scene, which makes it easy to share Global Illumination system settings across multiple Scenes.

Creating a Lighting Settings Asset

There are two ways to create a Lighting Settings Asset in the Unity Editor.

To create a Lighting Settings Asset from the Project view:

1. In the Project view, either click the add (+) button, or open the context menu and navigate to Create.
2. Click Lighting Settings. Unity creates a new Lighting Settings Asset in the Project view.

To create and automatically assign Lighting Settings Asset from the Lighting window:

1. Open the Lighting window (menu: Window > Rendering > Lighting).
2. Open the Scene tab.
3. Click New Lighting Asset. Unity creates a new Lighting Settings Asset in the Project view, and immediately assigns it to the active Scene.

You can also create a Lighting Settings Asset from a script. To do this, create an instance of the LightingSettings class and either save it to disk, or assign it to a Scene and save that Scene. For more information and code examples, see the LightingSettings API documentation.

Assigning a Lighting Settings Asset to a Scene

To assign a Lighting Settings Asset to a Scene in the Unity Editor:

1. Open the Scene that you want to assign the Lighting Settings Asset to.
2. If you have more than one Scene open, ensure that the Scene that you want to assign the Lighting Settings Asset to is the active Scene.
3. Open the Lighting window (menu: Window > Rendering > Lighting).
4. Open the Scene tab.
5. Either drag the Lighting Settings Asset to the Lighting Settings field, or click the icon to the right of the Lighting Settings field and choose the Lighting Settings Asset from the list.

You can also assign a Lighting Settings Asset to the active Scene from a script. To do this, load the Lighting Settings Asset to obtain an instance of the LightingSettings class, then use the Lightmapping.lightingSettings API to assign that LightingSettings instance to the active Scene. For more information and code examples, see the LightingSettings API documentation.

Viewing and editing the properties of a Lighting Settings Asset

You can view and edit the properties of Lighting Settings Asset in two places in the Unity Editor:

• In the Project view, if you select a Lighting Settings Asset, you can view and edit its properties in the 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.
• If the active Scene has a Lighting Settings Asset assigned to it, you can view and edit the properties of that Lighting Settings Asset in the Lighting Window’s Scene tab.

You can also read from or write to the properties of a Lighting Settings Asset from a script. To do this, load the Lighting Settings Asset to obtain an instance of theLightingSettings class, and access its properties. For more information and code examples, see the LightingSettings API documentation.

Default LightingSettings data

When a Scene does not have a Lighting Settings Asset assigned to it, Unity uses the default LightingSettings object for that Scene. The default LightingSettings object is an internal, read-only instance of the LightingSettings class.

You cannot make any changes to the LightingSettings data for a Scene that uses the default LightingSettings, but Unity can perform a bake using its settings.

To make changes to the LightingSettings data for a Scene, you must use the Unity Editor to create and assign a Lighting Settings Asset, or use a script to create, configure, and assign a LightingSettings object. For more information and code examples, see the LightingSettings API documentation.

Properties

When you view the Lighting Settings Asset in the Inspector or the Lighting window, the properties that you can view or edit are divided into the following sections:

• Realtime Lighting
• Mixed Lighting
• Lightmapping Settings
• Auto Generation

Realtime Lighting

This section contains settings related to the Realtime Global Illumination system. This section is visible only when using the Built-in Render Pipeline; Realtime Global Illumination is supported only in the Built-in Render Pipeline, and is not supported in URP or HDRP.

Mixed Lighting

This section contains settings that affect the behavior of Baked LightsLight components whose Mode property is set to Baked. Unity pre-calculates the illumination from Baked Lights before runtime, and does not include them in any runtime lighting calculations. More info
See in Glossary
and Mixed LightsLight components whose Mode property is set to Mixed. Some calculations for Mixed Lights are performed in advance, and some calculations for Mixed Lights are performed at runtime. The behavior of all Mixed Lights in a Scene is determined by the Scene’s Lighting Mode. More info
See in Glossary
in Scenes that use this Lighting Settings Asset.

Lightmapping Settings

This section contains settings related to lightmapping.

Lightmapping settings are specific to each lightmapperA tool in Unity that bakes lightmaps according to the arrangement of lights and geometry in your scene. More info
See in Glossary
backend. To see the settings for a lightmapper, see:

• The Progressive CPU Lightmapper
• The Progressive GPU Lightmapper (preview)
• EnlightenA lighting system by Geomerics used in Unity for lightmapping and for Realtime Global Illumination. More info
  See in Glossary
  

Auto Generation

When you view a Lighting Settings Asset in the Inspector, this property is at the top of the Inspector. When you view a Lighting Settings Asset in the Lighting window, this property is at the bottom of the Lighting window, near the Generate Lighting button.

• Lighting Settings Asset added in 2020.1 NewIn20201