Possible to light bake sections of map?

The Question:

I was thinking if I could use some kind of gizmo like a box collider to select an area to bake then it would make the process much faster as I don’t need to bake it all in one go and then repeat as it never results as expected.

The Reason:

I got a small map that is taking a long time to light bake. I believe it’s down to many small pieces in the environment, even tho I have used a mesh combine it still takes way to long at the lowest possible settings.

The light is important to my development as it sets mood so the ability to tweak and change is important.

 

I think I worked out a way to do this. It was not clear at first but if I turn off all the lightmap static option on all objects. Then enable lightmap static option on objects for the section of interest and then run a light bake that should in theory only bake that section.

When moving to bake the next section unity should store the already finalized baked information from the previous section and won’t re-bake that data.

This is my theory as I have not tested yet, I will post if it works as expected. Also good to mention I’m using unity 5 personal addition.

 

I just did a test and can confirm my my theory is correct.

It is possible to bake a map in sections by turning off the lightmap static option on objects. Also when focusing on a new section, unity will keep and add to the already baked data.

I do need to test this again on the actual map, but form my test it looks sound.

It would be nice to see the idea of a gizmo box (green box collider) that allows the ability to select an area to focus the lightbake on a specific area, but maybe something to come in the future.

 

Are you sure that when you do that objects that would have effected each other, if they were both light map static at the sametime, actually effect each other? (casting shadows light bouncing etc)

 

Not in my case, because my design is based on rooms and I aim to bake each room in a sequence, also not going back into a previous bake and that being the real limitation. Light would not bounce much into other rooms as of doors and door ways I assume, however for large open environments this may cause a problem or will it? Who knows ha.

What I found is that each group of objects (combined as one mesh), creates 1 job. If I had 10 of them then disabled 5 I get 5 jobs when that’s baked and I enable the other 5 I’m also getting only 5 jobs but 10 are baked.

I do need to test this again within my scene to make sure what I’m seeing is correct.

 

After doing a test on my map, the speeds are better but I’m not getting the same results on saving time on ready baked areas. Some parts are getting baked again and I think it’s down to light bouncing through the map.

But its still much faster indeed

Also one job is one light and not an object as I first thought.

 

Just an update on this, all the small to medium sized areas baked and didn’t need to much re-baking. worked like a dream getting my results in under a min when working on any section. However when I got to my last area the largest, it started processing 23 jobs every time I hit bake.

Im looking into this as its not clear why.

 

Yet another update, something went wrong and the light map stopped updating. I had to re-bake the entire scene from scratch. Not impressed as I have already spent more time with lightbakes than actual production/development work.

I would do a re-bake overnight but it’s not a flexible approach. In terms of eco-friendly I think unity’s light bake system will end the world for sure, but first driving everyone crazy!

Any alternative lighting solutions?

 

If its not to much, have you tried just using the realtime GI and maybe limiting shadow distance? (works well for indoor games - where you have rooms with one or two lights only). You still have to do the bake (so the realtime GI has its scene info for light bouncing) but it will be much quicker. Use light probes for dynamic objects. If it is an outdoor scene not sure really....mixed mode lights are supposed to be the solution for that dynamic shadows near the camera and lightmapped stuff far away, dynamic shadows for dynamic objects and lightmap stuff for static stuff. BUT they are broken at the moment....

If you really need baked GI - I have heard that breaking down geometry into smaller pieces improves speed - as each peice will only effect a few pieces near it. A giant piece would effect lots of geometry (think about your floor). Apart from that - play with the settings and keep them low when developing. When you finish you can up them all for a huge final bake (also borrow some NASA computers....)