Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Lightmapping Parameters completely irrelevant for Baked lighting? [Enlighten]

Discussion in 'Global Illumination' started by BuzzKirill, May 21, 2020.

  1. BuzzKirill

    BuzzKirill

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2017
    Posts:
    45
    In the Lighting window, under Lightmapping settings > Lightmap parameters, you can choose various levels of "quality" from Very Low to High resolution.
    But here's the thing, when comparing these settings, switching between them only changes the Realtime GI part (highlighted in red). The green part stays the same:



    Therefore, if I'm only using Enlighten Lightmapping to BAKE light, I will see absolutely no difference when using Very Low setting as compared, for example, to High?

    Also:
    • For some reason, setting it to higher values than Very Low still increases the bake time tremendously. I don't think I've ever actually tried to use High, since I expect the render to take about several days. Why is that, if it doesn't actually make a difference in the resulting baked lightmaps?
    • I realize Enlighten is going to be removed soon. But I find Progressive to be much slower and gives worse results, so I'm just gonna use Enlighten while it lasts.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

    Joined:
    May 20, 2010
    Posts:
    11,631
    It's relevant, you should be seeing some difference. As I remember it, if you have final gather on, it uses final gather for the first bounce, but for the other bounces it uses an upsampled precomputed GI. The resolution of the precomputed GI is affected by the lightmap parameters a lot.
     
    BuzzKirill likes this.
  3. BuzzKirill

    BuzzKirill

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2017
    Posts:
    45
    I see, thanks. Well, I did some Final gather tests early on, didn't notice any visual difference at all, so I decided to disable it forever. Guess for me the bottom line stays the same.
     
  4. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

    Joined:
    May 20, 2010
    Posts:
    11,631
    Is it an exterior scene? Since the differences are mostly in bounced light, if your scene is mostly direct lit it might be extra hard to spot the difference.
     
    BuzzKirill likes this.