The Lighting window
The Lighting window (menu: Window > Rendering > Lighting) is the main control point for Unity’s lighting features. You can use the Lighting window to adjust settings related to the lighting in your Scene, and to optimise your precomputed lighting data for quality, bake time, and storage space.
Related APIs
You can perform many of the functions available in the Lighting window in scriptsA piece of code that allows you to create your own Components, trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like. More info
See in Glossary, using the LightingSettings and Lightmapping APIs.
Lighting window layout
The Lighting window contains the following elements:
- The Scene tab
- The Environment tab
- The Realtime Lightmaps tab (Built-in Render Pipeline only)
- The Baked Lightmaps tab
- The control area, at the bottom of the window
The Scene tab
The 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 tab displays information about the Lighting Settings Asset that is assigned to the active Scene. If no Lighting Settings Asset is assigned to the active Scene, it displays information about the default LightingSettings object.
The Scene tab is divided into two sections:
Lighting Settings Asset controls
Use the controls in this section to assign a Lighting Settings Asset to the active Scene, or to create a new Lighting Settings Asset.
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Lighting Settings | The Lighting Settings Asset assigned to the active Scene. |
| New Lighting Settings | Click this button to generate a new Lighting Settings Asset in your Project, and automatically assign the new Lighting Settings Asset to the active Scene. |
Lighting Settings
Use this section to view and edit the properties of the Lighting Settings Asset or LightingSettings object assigned to the current Scene. See Lighting Settings Asset.
Workflow settings
This section contains settings that help you debug your Scene.
| Property: | Function: | |
|---|---|---|
| GPU Baking Device | Use this to change the GPU that Unity uses for precomputing lighting data. This property is visible only when you use the GPU Progressive Lightmapper backend. | |
| Light Probe Visualization | Use this to filter which Light ProbesLight probes store information about how light passes through space in your scene. A collection of light probes arranged within a given space can improve lighting on moving objects and static LOD scenery within that space. More info See in Glossary are visualized in the Scene viewAn interactive view into the world you are creating. You use the Scene View to select and position scenery, characters, cameras, lights, and all other types of Game Object. More info See in Glossary. The default value is Only Probes Used By Selection. |
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| Only Probes Used By Selection | Only Light Probes that affect the current selection are visualized in the Scene view. | |
| All Probes No Cells | All Light Probes are visualized in the Scene view. | |
| All Probes With Cells | All Light Probes are visualized in the Scene view, and the tetrahedrons that are used for interpolation of Light Probe data are also displayed. | |
| None | No Light Probes are visualized in the Scene view. | |
| Display Weights | When enabled, Unity draws a line from the Light Probe used for the active selection to the positions on the tetrahedra used for interpolation. This is a way to debug probe interpolation and placement problems. | |
| Display Occlusion | When enabled, Unity displays occlusion data for Light Probes if the Lighting Mode is set to ShadowmaskA Texture that shares the same UV layout and resolution with its corresponding lightmap. More info See in Glossary. |
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The Environment tab
The Environment tab contains settings related to environmental lighting effects for the current Scene. The contents depend 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.
Built-in Render Pipeline and Universal Render Pipeline
In the Built-in Render Pipeline and URP, the Environment tab is divided into two sections:
Environment
The Environment section contains lighting-related settings and controls that apply to the environmental lighting in the current scene, such as the Skybox, diffuse lighting and reflections.
| Property: | Function: | |
|---|---|---|
| Skybox Material | A Skybox is a Material that appears behind everything else in the Scene to simulate the sky or other distant background. Use this property to choose the Skybox you want to use for the Scene. The default value is the built-in Default Skybox. | |
| Sun Source | When the Skybox Material is a Procedural Skybox, use this setting to specify a GameObject with a directional Light component to indicate the direction of the sun (or whatever large, distant light source is illuminating your Scene). If this is set to None, the brightest directional light in the Scene is assumed to represent the sun. Lights whose Render Mode property is set to Not Important do not affect the Skybox. The default value is None. For more information about the Render Mode setting, see the Additional settings section of Lights. |
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| Realtime Shadow Color | Define the color that Unity uses to render real-time shadows in Subtractive Lighting Mode. This setting is visible only when the Lighting Mode is set to Subtractive. |
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| Environment Lighting | This section contains settings that affect ambient light in the current Scene. | |
| Source | Use this to define a source color for ambient light in the Scene. The default value is SkyboxA special type of Material used to represent skies. Usually six-sided. More info See in Glossary. |
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| Skybox | Use the colors of the Skybox set in Skybox Material to determine the ambient light coming from different angles. This allows for more precise effects than Gradient. | |
| Gradient | Choose separate colors for ambient light from the sky, horizon and ground, and blend smoothly between them. | |
| Color | Use a flat color for all ambient light. | |
| Intensity Multiplier | Use this to set the brightness of the ambient light in the Scene, defined as a value between 0 and 8. The default value is 1. | |
| Environment Reflections | This section contains global settings for Reflection ProbeA rendering component that captures a spherical view of its surroundings in all directions, rather like a camera. The captured image is then stored as a Cubemap that can be used by objects with reflective materials. More info See in Glossary baking, and settings that affect global reflections. |
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| Source | Use this setting to specify whether you want to use the Skybox for reflection effects, or a Cubemap of your choice. The default value is Skybox. | |
| Skybox | Select this to use the Skybox as the reflection source. | |
| Custom | Select this to use either a Cubemap asset or a RenderTexture of type cube for reflections. | |
| Resolution | Use this to set the resolution of the Skybox for reflection purposes. This property is visible only when Source is set to Skybox. | |
| CubemapA collection of six square textures that can represent the reflections in an environment or the skybox drawn behind your geometry. The six squares form the faces of an imaginary cube that surrounds an object; each face represents the view along the directions of the world axes (up, down, left, right, forward and back). More info See in Glossary |
Use this to specify the Cubemap to use for reflection purposes. This property is visible only when Source is set to Cubemap. | |
| CompressionA method of storing data that reduces the amount of storage space it requires. See Texture Compression, Animation Compression, Audio Compression, Build Compression. See in Glossary |
Use this to define whether or not reflection textures are compressed. The default setting is Auto. | |
| Auto | The reflection texture is compressed if the compression format is suitable. | |
| Uncompressed | The reflection texture is stored in memory uncompressed. | |
| Compressed | The texture is compressed. | |
| Intensity Multiplier | The degree to which the reflection source is visible in reflective objects. | |
| Bounces | A reflection bounce occurs when a reflection from one object is then reflected by another object. Use this property to set how many times the Reflection Probes evaluate bounces back and forth between objects. If this is set to 1, then Unity only takes the initial reflection (from the skybox or cube map specified in the Reflection Source property) into account. | |
Other Settings
The Other Settings section contains settings for fog, HalosThe glowing light areas around light sources, used to give the impression of small dust particles in the air. More info
See in Glossary, Flares and Cookies.
| Property: | Function: | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FogA post-processing effect that overlays a color onto objects depending on the distance from the camera. Use this to simulate fog or mist in outdoor environments, or to hide clipping of objects near the camera’s far clip plane. More info See in Glossary |
Enables or disables fog in the Scene. Note that fog is not available with the Deferred rendering path. | |||
| Color | Use the color picker to set the color Unity uses to draw fog in the Scene. | |||
| Mode | Define the way in which the fogging accumulates with distance from the cameraA component which creates an image of a particular viewpoint in your scene. The output is either drawn to the screen or captured as a texture. More info See in Glossary. |
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| Linear | Fog density increases linearly with distance. | |||
| Start | Set the distance from the Camera at which the fog starts. | |||
| End | Set the distance from the Camera at which the fog completely obscures Scene GameObjectsThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info See in Glossary. |
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| Exponential | Fog density increases exponentially with distance. | |||
| Density | Use this to control the density of the fog. The fog appears more dense as the Density increases. | |||
| Exponential Squared | Fog density increases faster with distance (exponentially and squared). | |||
| Density | Use this to control the density of the fog. The fog appears more dense as the Density increases. | |||
| Halo Texture | Set the Texture you want to use for drawing a Halo around lights. | |||
| Halo Strength | Define the visibility of Halos around Lights, from a value between 0 and 1. | |||
| Flare Fade Speed | Define the time (in seconds) over which lens flaresA component that simulates the effect of lights refracting inside a camera lens. Use a Lens Flare to represent very bright lights or add atmosphere to your scene. More info See in Glossary fade from view after initially appearing. This is set to 3 by default. |
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| Flare Strength | Define the visibility of lens flares from lights, from a value between 0 and 1. | |||
| Spot Cookie | Set the Cookie texture you want to use for Spot Lights. | |||
High Definition Render Pipeline
In HDRP, the Environment tab allows you to specify which sky to use for environment lighting. For more information on environment lighting in HDRP, see Environment Lighting in the HDRP documentation.
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Profile | A Volume Profile for the sky. This Volume Profile must include at least one Sky Volume override. |
| Static Lighting Sky | The sky to use for the Global Illumination simulation. The drop-down only contains sky types that the Profile includes. For example, if the Profile includes a Gradient Sky Volume override, you can select Gradient Sky from this drop-down. You can only edit this setting if you assign a Volume Profile to the Profile field. |
The Realtime Lightmaps tab
The Realtime LightmapsA pre-rendered texture that contains the effects of light sources on static objects in the scene. Lightmaps are overlaid on top of scene geometry to create the effect of lighting. More info
See in Glossary tab shows a list of all lightmaps generated by the Enlighten Realtime Global IlluminationA group of techniques that model both direct and indirect lighting to provide realistic lighting results.
See in Glossary system in the current Scene. If Enlighten Realtime Global IlluminationA lighting system by Geomerics used in Unity for lightmapping and for Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination. More info
See in Glossary is not enabled in your Project, this tab will be empty.
The Baked Lightmaps tab
This tab shows a list of all lightmaps generated by lightmapperA tool in Unity that bakes lightmaps according to the arrangement of lights and geometry in your scene. More info
See in Glossary for the current Scene, along with the Lighting Data Asset. If Baked Global Illumination is not enabled in your Project, this tab will be empty.
Control area
Controls for precomputing lighting data are at the bottom of the Lighting window.
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Auto Generate | If Auto Generate is enabled, Unity precomputes lighting data automatically when you make changes to the Scene. This data includes lightmaps for the Baked Global Illumination system, lightmaps for the Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination system, Light Probes, and Reflection Probes. Unity usually begins the bake a few seconds after you make a change to the Scene. If Auto Generate is disabled, you must manually invoke a bake yourself, using the Generate Lighting button in the Lighting window, or the Lightmapping.Bake or Lightmapping.BakeAsync APIs. Note that when you precompute lighting data using Auto Generate, the precomputed lighting data is not stored as Assets in your Project. It is instead stored in memory, and serialized as part of the Scene. This property is stored in a Lighting Settings Asset. It is visible in the Lighting window only if the Scene tab is selected, and the active Scene has a Lighting Settings Asset assigned to it. |
| Generate Lighting | Click the Generate Lighting button to precompute lighting data for all open Scenes. This data includes lightmaps for the Baked Global Illumination system, lightmaps for the Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination system, Light Probes, and Reflection Probes. Click the dropdown menu on the right hand side of the Generate Lighting and then click Bake Reflection Probes to bake only the Reflection Probes for all open Scenes. Click the dropdown menu on the right hand side of the Generate Lighting and then click Clear Baked Data to clear all precomputed lighting data from all open Scenes without clearing the GI CacheThe cached intermediate files used when Unity precomputes lighting data. Unity keeps this cache to speed up computation. More info See in Glossary. This button is enabled only if Auto Generate is disabled. |
- [Lighting Settings Asset] added in 2020.1 NewIn20201