Official 2D Lights Streamline - Tell us your thoughts!

Parametric Light 2D

1. Are you using the Parametric Light 2D component? No, using Sprite Light nearly exclusively.
   
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using Parametric Light 2D? N/A.
   
3. If we removed the Parametric Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? None.
   
4. If we provided preconfigured Freeform Lights for commonly used shapes such as Triangle, Square, Hexagon and Circle, would that minimise that impact? N/A.
   
5. What other preconfigured Freeform Lights shapes would you probably find useful? N/A.

Falloff Offset parameter

1. Are you using the Falloff Offset parameter on any of the 2D lights? No.
   
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Falloff Offset parameter? N/A.
   
3. If we removed the Falloff Offset parameter, how would this impact your productions? I would hold candlelight vigil but move on quickly.

Sprite Cookie on Point Light 2D

1. Are you using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, parameter on any of the 2D lights? No, it seemed redundant with Sprite light, so just used Sprite light.
   
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D? N/A.
   
3. If we removed the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? None.

 

Parametric Light 2D

1. Are you using the Parametric Light 2D component? No.
   
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using Parametric Light 2D? N/A.
   
3. If we removed the Parametric Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? At the moment it won't impact.
   
4. If we provided preconfigured Freeform Lights for commonly used shapes such as Triangle, Square, Hexagon and Circle, would that minimise that impact? I think it would.
   
5. What other preconfigured Freeform Lights shapes would you probably find useful? N/A.

Falloff Offset parameter

1. Are you using the Falloff Offset parameter on any of the 2D lights? Yes.
   
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Falloff Offset parameter? I'm using it to create a flickering effect.
   
3. If we removed the Falloff Offset parameter, how would this impact your productions? I would try to find an alternative.

Sprite Cookie on Point Light 2D

1. Are you using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, parameter on any of the 2D lights? No.
   
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D? N/A.
   
3. If we removed the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? None.

 

Parametric Light 2D

1. Are you using the Parametric Light 2D component? No.
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using Parametric Light 2D? N/A.
3. If we removed the Parametric Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? N/A.
4. If we provided preconfigured Freeform Lights for commonly used shapes such as Triangle, Square, Hexagon and Circle, would that minimise that impact? Yes.
5. What other preconfigured Freeform Lights shapes would you probably find useful? N/A.

Falloff Offset parameter

1. Are you using the Falloff Offset parameter on any of the 2D lights? NO.
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Falloff Offset parameter? N/A.
3. If we removed the Falloff Offset parameter, how would this impact your productions? N/A.

Sprite Cookie on Point Light 2D

1. Are you using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, parameter on any of the 2D lights? Yes.
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D? Using it like a projector.
3. If we removed the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? Can‘t easily make a complicated shape of light.

 

Yes，some time I would use Sprite Light2D for a big shape like a big paper cut. I use to make a fire spark with Point Light2D and cookie because I can control the angle and radius. I would like to remove cookie and get better performance.

 

I am getting a black screen in my WebGL build after implementing 2D lights. Help.

 

The 2D team need to figure out where 2D features live. I missed this post due to the fact that I don't check the 2D forums since 2D lighting is an experimental feature and thus I figured would be asked in the 2D preview forums.
Parametric Light2D

1. Are you using the Parametric Light 2D component? No, we use freeform lights when we need a shape.
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using Parametric Light 2D? N/A
3. If we removed the Parametric Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? N/A
4. If we provided preconfigured Freeform Lights for commonly used shapes such as Triangle, Square, Hexagon and Circle, would that minimise that impact? N/A
5. What other preconfigured Freeform Lights shapes would you probably find useful? We feel freeform lights supersede all behaviors of the parametric light and parametric can be removed.

Falloff Offset parameter

1. Are you using the Falloff Offset parameter on any of the 2D lights? Yes!
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Falloff Offset parameter? We primarily are using it as a way to control light direction of freeform lights. This can represent of day light shifting of the 2D light. So that as the time moves during the day the lights will shift their offset to simulate light shafts at specific angles.
3. If we removed the Falloff Offset parameter, how would this impact your productions? We'd probably need to have unique shafts for every time of day. This would affect our workflows fairly considerably and increase the amount of time it would take to handle these types of lights.

Sprite Cookie on Point Light 2D

1. Are you using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, parameter on any of the 2D lights? No
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D? Although we don't use it in our current project. I could see this being useful to reuse a cookie at particular angles of light. Sure you could make a custom sprite light for every use case to achieve a similar result, but at a cost of needing to have custom light textures/sprites in memory. I feel you should keep the point light cookie around unless it has a perf impact.
3. If we removed the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? N/A

 

Falloff Offset parameter
This is how I'm using the Falloff Offset with the Freeform lights to simulate a fluorescent lamp. It helps to control the end of the light falloff and soften the borders of the shape:

If you remove it without any alternative, I would have to redo all my lights.
I've neither used Parametric lights nor Sprite Cookies yet.

 

Parametric Light 2D

1. Are you using the Parametric Light 2D component? No
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using Parametric Light 2D? N/A
3. If we removed the Parametric Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? N/A
4. If we provided preconfigured Freeform Lights for commonly used shapes such as Triangle, Square, Hexagon and Circle, would that minimise that impact? N/A
5. What other preconfigured Freeform Lights shapes would you probably find useful? N/A

Falloff Offset parameter

1. Are you using the Falloff Offset parameter on any of the 2D lights? Yes
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Falloff Offset parameter? Preventing hard edges between lights, which important.
3. If we removed the Falloff Offset parameter, how would this impact your productions? Yes, it would have a significant impact on the lighting since it is used extensively, unless there is another manner of achieving the same effect. In any event, it is likely to require a lot of work,

Sprite Cookie on Point Light 2D

1. Are you using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, parameter on any of the 2D lights? yes.
2. If so, how are you using it? What problem are you solving using the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D? Cookies being used to create shadows that are important for the look of the game.
3. If we removed the Sprite Cookie from the Point Light 2D, how would this impact your productions? Yes, unless a viable alternative is provided.

 

Basically, it's a poor man's light shaft. For tall windows that bleed light in the mornings, vs sunset we can use the same light but animate the offset to fake it like a window that is facing north an example could be.
Morning/Noon/Sunset

 

Not sure if this is the right place, but have you considered introducing 2D directional light and something like shadow falloff/cookie?

Let me explain the question/use case:

Right now, all the lights basically behave like point lights when it comes to normal mapping and shadows. Even freeform light shines from pivot spot, so that the shadow has always the direction from pivot of the light to shadow caster (though extended further from shadowcaster), wherever it might be. That doesn't feel very well when it comes to natural light sources which are supposed to be so far away that the shadow casting angle is basically constant, just like 3D directional light works. The same goes for the normals, which are lit from the direction of the pivot spot of the light. So currently there's no way to apply "daylight" on your normal mapped sprites, at least without excessive use of unnecessary amount of lights

The shadow falloff/cookie is meant especially for top-down projects where you can use them as sort of drop shadows extended from shadowcaster, but not for the whole length of the light, but just for preset amount. Or is there any dedicated drop shadow system for top-down projects in development?

Thanks in advance!

 

This is a must-have feature for me.

 

It has been requested here too.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/current-2d-renderers-missing-core-features.1023772

 

Thanks a lot, will watch that thread as well!

 

So... Falloff offset has been removed in 2021. How can I achieve the same effect I explained above (#10)?
I don't see any alternatives. As I explained back then, this will break all my light effects as soon as I upgrade URP.

 

I just upgrade my project from 2019 to 2021 and see there is a lot of things changed in 2d light, and basically, I can't achived what I've done in 2019. I use falloff offset and parametric light a lot to fast build scene with lights that has direction.

Now with fallout offset gone, I can't recover scenes the way they are.

Also the normal light behaves differently with new version of URP.My game is pixel style and I use normal for characters and some objects to achieve an lightened edge effect. In 2019 if I set normal map filter mode to point, lightened pixels looks sharp and distinct. But now they appeared light filtered in linear method, is this the effect that supposed to be, or how can I make it behave like before, or how can I change the 2d light method in shaders?


The unity version was typed wrong in second image, its 2021.1
I'm not an english speaker, hope you could understand the expressions.

 

it seems to have been completely changed (for the worse, in my opinion). i couldn't reproduce the lights in my game either. i hope that these features will be implemented again in a better form. i recommend you to use the latest version of Unity 2020 (currently: 2020.3.8f1 LTS). LTS = Long Term Support. this means that this version is constantly updated (only this version doesn't get the new features from the 2021 version). there is also a 2018 version (2018.4.35f1 LTS).

 

For those of you that have been affected by the removal of the Falloff offset property of Freeform lights, I want to share with you my code for re-enabling it back in v2021.
https://github.com/QThund/Graphics/...a75f0e1c86cdf6b13f88af8d77f04301e9&diff=split

 

I think for the latest version, Unity changed the normal map rendering buffer size yo be equal to the light buffer size. Check your light buffet size.

 

I just updated my Untiy and my lights are acting really strange. I was just about to send my game to Nintendo when I realized that all 2D lights are missbehaving. They seem to be duplicated and when I move them around in the editor, they move inverted in the game scene Does this have anything to do with the changes Unity made?

This video you can see how the lightbulbs in the Editor look ok, but ingame they are upside down.
You can also see how I move the light around and it acts differently in the Game secene.

 

I think I might need this but Im a bit noob with how to implement. I clicked your link and I see two scripts. Is the right hand side script your fix?`
Do I replace a script in my project with yours? If so, which one? THanks!

This is my problem, my lights are duplicated and positioned in strange ways since the update. does your scirpt fix that? This video you can see how the lightbulbs in the Editor look ok, but ingame they are upside down.
You can also see how I move the light around and it acts differently in the Game secene.

 

My patch is not for fixing any bug, but for recovering a removed feature (falloff offset).

 

Hi!
Yeah I think thats what i need too. But Im not sure how to download your patch.
It sais "6 changed files" . So that means I need to download your patch and replace files in Unity?
Im sitting on github now trying to figure out what is what :S

 

I would just open each file and copy/paste the modified lines at the right places.

 

Thanks!
I give it ago!

Edit: I replaced all code but it didnt sort out my problem :/ Thanks anyway!

 

Like some other users here, I use the lights like this... But since Unity updated the Light system I can no longer achieve this. My game is done and I can't go back to earlier versions since Nintendo SDK "forces" me to use the corresponding version of Unity.

All light options now follow the camera and won't stay static.
1. What was the point of removing this? (Asking out of curiosity)
2. Is unity working on re introducing the falloff offset, or is there an alternative?

@xiangtingsu

Did you find a way to fix your problem? I think we have the same problem :/

 

Does anyone know How can I get rid of this reflection? And why is this added? it really ruined my game :*(
Thanks in advance

@xiangtingsu @rustum

 

But falloff offset is working after you added the code, isn't it? Maybe already existing lights got serialized without that property and that data is lost forever, but new lights should work.

 

Thanks for your reply.
1. In this video you can see that the Light keep moving around when I duck and stand up. (It follows the camera I think...). However, the lights behave correctly in the Editor, but not In-Game.

2. How do I check 2D renderer settings? I googled but nothing came up. And I have not installed any shaders (I dont know what they are... So I don't think i have any shaders.) I just re-downloaded Unity 2021.1.7f1 and have not installed anything extra so I guess I don't have any shaders. Or, how do I find out?

Thanks

EDIT: If I disable the "Background" layer in the Target Sorting Layers the "reflection" disappeared... On the background wall... Progress.. But hte light on the character is still acting strange. her flashlight sits on her waist, but its located on her neck now :S (As you can see in the video)

 

i dont think thats possible. This version of Unity (2021.1.7f1) is what came with the Nintendo SDK and as far as i can tell, My Nintendo SDK and Unity has to correspond to each other.

I managed to fix it, somewhat, and this is what I did.
The problem seem to be that a reflection was casted on the background Layer if I wanted the Light to Target the background Layer. So I added a few "LampLayers" throughout my Layer-handler and now I got rid of the reflection. The backgrounds however, won't shine as bright as they used too since I can't Target them without getting the reflection, but at least it looks 85% ok.

 

Thanks a lot, I think unity team change the default buffer size to 0.5 to reduce overhead, and the frame rate does drop dramastically when I set buffer size to 1. I guess I should tweek this value carefully to banlance the performance and quality.
There is another problem that hasn't been sovled in my project when upgrade to Unity2021. 2D normal light cast on sprites seems in opposite direction if the sprite gameobject is flipped(set scale to -1 or set y rotation to 180)

(normal light direction is correct when sprite is not flipped)
(normal light direction upside down if sprite is flipped.)

Do you know how can I correct this?

 

Yes, I am aware of the above issue with Normal map. I created my own lit shader using Amplify Shader Editor to flip the normal of Y axis if sprite is facing opposite direction. But this should not be necessary... I have also filed bug report about this here :

Please vote!

https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...rites-scale-is-flipped-from-slash-to-negative

 

Using flipping flag can only work nicely if it involves only say one sprite, When you have sprites with over layered to create say a character, you can't use flip option because it's transforms may not always be on the same X value or Y value. And having to have to do flipping for every sprites is not the way to go anyway.. Problem escalate if you have Unity Animator combination..

 

Thx for replying.
In my game there are many calculations depends on character's local rotation so I use y rotation instead of sprite flip. I think I will wait for the bug to be fixed.

 

It has been always like this ever since I can remember. I am currently using 2021.15f1

 

I'm currently use Unity2021.1.15, the problem happened after I switch from Unity2019 to Unity2021.

 

I always update URP to latest and I checked the last version of Unity2019 I used is 2019.4.24, the URP version for this Editor is 7.5.3.

 

I waited a long time for this problem to be solved, today I tested the project in Unity2022.1 and see the normal light on sprite still upside down. I wonder if this problem is going to be fixed, it's really hard to find alternative solution in my project.

 

I checked 2022.2.0b1 version of editor and found the normal light no longer flipped. I guess I will upgrade project to this version and wish the 2d light pipeline won't change again. It's very glad to see the problem get solved.