Prefab Mode Lighting

Just downloaded 2018.3 to try out the new prefab features. First thing I noticed was that as soon as I enter prefab mode the lighting is way darker and off. So then I set up the prefab environment scene in the project settings so that it would match my scene but it's still way off.

I'm using a flat lighting approach where scene ambient color is full white--I'm guessing this has something to do with it? Even when I set the ambient color in the prefab environment scene it seems to not take that into effect. Since everything is flat and I'm coloring scenes in editor I absolutely need to see correct lighting/colors while in prefab mode. Am I doing something wrong?

intended lighting vs prefab mode:
vs

 

I have the same problem, and my prefabs look very different(with same light settings) in Unity Editor and in Android device. Maybe it is a bug of current version Unity?

 

Same here, this really bothers me. I need to keep opening/closing prefab mode to see the changes because lighting looks completly different in prefab mode.

 

I've reported this and got assigned case number 1112259

 

Can confirm I have the exact same issue. Created a Stage Scene for Prefabs that only has a Direct Light and Ambient Light settings and the ambient light does not work.

In addition, sometimes the Direct Light does not work either.

 

Any news on this, there has been 2 releases since this was reported, seems like a glaring oversight for a flagship feature of the new Prefab system.

 

We have a lot of issues to fix and can't do everything at once.

For the specific issue here, case 1112259 just got into QA verification today (where they try to reproduce the bug before it's sent to developers). I guess they have a lot on their plate in QA as well.

I wish we could make everything happen faster, but the reality is that some patience is needed.

 

I just encountered this one too, looking forward to the fix

 

Can confirm this issue as well. Makes prefab mode unusable. Could we get an option to have "no light" in prefab mode?

 

@Mads-Nyholm Thanks, first thing I tried , doesn't work.

Cannot confirm in general, but we use custom lights for Unto, the default lights are way way too expensive for 2D, and we can't bake our lighting for reasons I cannot fully recall... 2D sprites + our DoF shader stuff... something like that .

A thot, can I detect when the editor is in "prefab edit mode"? And, is the prefab edit mode located in world space relative to other scenes or in some new view space? Can I move a light to it?

I'm asking b/c maybe I could turn on a full white light at the location of prefab only when editing. Thots?

 

Excellent, thanks. I'll have a look as soon as I get a free window. Cheers!

 

@Mads-Nyholm giving this a go today...

1, Adding a light to the Environment scene doesn't seem to work, nor does a ground or anything else -- is this scene truly getting loaded on prefab edit? For clarification when you say 'Editor Settings' you mean Project Settings > Editor (tab), yes? Just want to make sure I'm not missing another place to set the Prefab scene.

2, How do I wire up

OnPrefabStageOpened

? I hung it off a MonoBehavior that is set to execute in edit mode and added it to a loaded GameObject but it never gets called... :|.

 

In your ExecuteInEditMode script, you need to assign your function to the prefabStageOpened event, like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. void Start()
2. {
3.     PrefabStage.prefabStageOpened += OnPrefabStageOpened;
4. }
5.  
6. void OnPrefabStageOpened(PrefabStage prefabStage)
7. {
8.     // Do stuff here
9.  
10.     // Unsubscribe when done so you dont get multiple callbacks when re-entering prefab mode
11.     PrefabStage.prefabStageOpened -= OnPrefabStageOpened;
12. }

 

Ahh... ... thanks, will give it a go!

I now get the event, and the prefab scene that I created and put a light in, appears to be loaded, but it is totally dark, no light at all.

 

I played around with it a little and found that I had to toggle the scene lighting *on* in prefab mode to see the added light (the little sun looking button at the top of the scene window). Also, make sure you are moving the light into the prefab scene.

edit:
Here is a complete working script that I added onto my prefab:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEditor.Experimental.SceneManagement;
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
4. [ExecuteInEditMode]
5. public class PrefabModeLight : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.     void Start()
8.     {
9.         PrefabStage.prefabStageOpened += OnPrefabStageOpened;
10.     }
11.  
12.     void OnPrefabStageOpened(PrefabStage prefabStage)
13.     {
14.         // Do stuff here
15.         GameObject go = new GameObject();
16.         Light directionalLight = go.AddComponent<Light>();
17.         directionalLight.type = LightType.Directional;
18.         directionalLight.intensity = 10;
19.  
20.         SceneManager.MoveGameObjectToScene(go, prefabStage.scene);
21.  
22.         // Unsubscribe when done so you dont get multiple callbacks when re-entering prefab mode
23.         PrefabStage.prefabStageOpened -= OnPrefabStageOpened;
24.     }
25. }
26.  

 

Thanks for digging into this... I think it's something to do with my custom 2D lights (see context early in thread)... I had everything working early, but this simply doesn't work for me :|.

I'll keep hacking at it, and post back if I get anywhere.

@UnityDesign As general feedback to any Unity UI designers that might come across this thread. The new prefab workflow indeed enables nesting prefabs, but at the expense of the more common in-line and bulk editing of prefabs. To me this feels like the wrong prioritization. I find the current prefab workflow so cumbersome that I'd greatly appreciate a way to turn it off and use the old system :|.

 

I had the same problem. I created a scene with a few directional lights and used it as Prefab Editin Environment (Project Settings -> Editor)

 

It's been about 8 months now and the ambient lighting issue in prefab mode still exists. Did I miss something or has it not been patched yet?

EDIT: May have found the fix in the 2019.1.6 release notes (I'm on 2019.1.0). It seems that release notes are split between 2 different pages--the Download Archive (https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive) and Patch Releases(https://unity3d.com/unity/qa/patch-releases)?

 

Yes, please check out latest release.

 

Is this fix coming to 2018.4 LTS ?

 

It has been in 2018.4 since 2018.4.4f1.
Note, I believe it doesn't work if the environment scene is set to Auto in the lighting settings. If you set it to Baked and bake it, it should work.

 

As far as I can tell, even with 2019.3.12f1, their are no environment reflections (eg. from the Skybox). It's exactly as if the "Intensity Multiplier" is set to 0, which, as the Tooltip even says, produces physically incorrect results.

This is an ancient problem, surely there must be something I'm doing wrong, this can't have been "sitting in QA" for 2 years.

 

It was fixed around a year ago as you can see from the replies above. I just tested myself here and I do see reflections. If you don't, there must be specific circumstances in your project that is the cause, and we'd need a bug report to be able to investigate.

But first, when you open the scene that you've set as environment scene, do you see proper reflections in that scene itself? And has the lighting been baked in the Lighting window? If it's set to "Auto" it won't work.

 

Ah, it's the Auto thing. Is the reason that's not also fixed that Enlighten is being deprecated? I don't fully understand how dynamic scenes will be realtime-lit after that deprecation, but for now at least my Prefab env is reasonably lit.

 

With raytracing - I guess thats why they put no effort in providing any realtime GI solution right now.

 

Apparently, this problem is still there... after 3 years...

Toggled off (no scene lights):


Toggled on (scene lights... there are no lights in the scene):


This happens if you edit a prefab that is NOT in the scene.
Annoying to have to put the prefab in the scene so to have a decent visual, and wondering how hard can it be to fix this.

 

Oh no, I don't have an environment scene for the prefab mode.
Didn't even know this is possible.
I'll set up one then!
Thank you for assistance!

 

Hello, using Unity 2020.3.18f1, I have a similar problem:
Normal setup is like so:


And when opening the prefab:


I tried to set the scene as prefab environment in project settings but did not help.
The prefab is empty at the moment as you can see, this is normal I was just about to edit it when I saw that issue.

This is my lighting environment if it can help:


The camera is set to use a solid color:


I created another scene to set as a prefab scene.
If I set a skybox material, any skybox material (like a yellow one as you can see in the picture), then I have a black background. I suppose this is due to the error.

 

Same here in 2021.2.14f1, all prefab mode are dark without any light

 

I'm having the opposite problem, lighting inside prefabs shows only in prefab mode. When I go back to the editor, all lighting inside the prefab does not show.

 

Have you managed to solve this? I have this issue as well.

 

Just figure out my mistake: single point light casts 6 shadows so limit of 128 shadows in HDRP asset wasn't as much as it seemed. Maybe this was your issue as well.