Noob unity lighting tests

MainManiac

Disregard assets because they are garbage. I am absolutely terrible at environments because no matter how much time I spent on a prop the lighting looks like crap. I usually give up when im blocking the scene out because I can't pinpoint whats off... so I figured if I do the lighting/terrain/sky first I can't blame my lighting

So I decided to try practice lighting some scenes.

If anything blatant stands out or you have anything I should make note of or some tricks I could do before I try to put together a real scene tomorrow id love to hear it!


Imgur crapped on the quality of the pics






Thanks!

Tobbo

Is there a reason you are using Unity as the rendering engine and not UDK or the Crysis Engine?

Fingus

Nice initiative!

The first one is my favorite, I like the way the shadow is softened by the grass. It's looking a bit dull though. It lacks accent, something like a small detail that stands out and in contrast to the rest. And while it may be personal preference I'd like to see more saturation.

Out of the second image I prefer the bright one. It has more character and atmosphere, and the black tree trunks stand out well from the mostly white ground, foliage, and fog. Again they feel a bit dull and desaturated, although it fits the scene better.

Are you using Unity Free or Pro? I'm not sure if those shadows are realtime or lightmapped. If you have Pro I recommend looking into post effects. Some subtle application of image adjustments and color correction can really push your lighting.

wichenroder

Step 1 when lighting in Unity is to change the default color of the Ambient Light in Render Settings. Always add a little color to your light and shadow.

MainManiac

@Tobbo because I need to work on my color palettes and composition more than I do my next-gen quality. If I can get better at putting together/lighting lower poly environments then that skill should transfer easier into UDK, then I just have to put more work into the assets. I also don't feel like fiddling with kismet and hoping the program doesn't crash every 20 minutes. I haven't dived into cryengine 3 yet... I might actually try that provided theres a good amount of tutorials to familiarize myself with the editor

@Fingus im only using Unity free right now Thanks though! This is lightmapped because unity free doesn't allow dynamic lights


@Wichenroder The sunlight is tinted yellow but probably not enough, I planned to try an orangeish sunlight and purple shadows/darks for an extra moody scene but I didn't realize I destroyed my grass scene when I made the snow scene :P


Thanks guys!

MainManiac

heres another try, more moody

MainManiac

Z3D

I think it's all made by flow, is not your assets or lights that kill you.
If your models are not right no matter how good your light is,you'll have problems, and opposite.(indepentende of engine)
I mean your models has to have very nice uv space,2 uvs, set right in Unity..
So with this version of Unity you have very basics commands ,you have to make everything based in lightmap as you doing (maybe some extra lights can give you more results).I advice you to look for your own shader with Strumpy Shader Editor - http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/561...e-Improvements
You'll have total control how your assets works with light, but as you know everything is post process, in case unity have Imagen effects it is a good tool for this work but it is only on pro .

Fingus

That is a significant improvement. The colors and contrast is a lot more vibrant now.

If you're only using the Free version you're probably better off giving Cryengine or UDK a go since you'll have a lot more tools at your disposal. I love Unity but the Free version is very limited in terms of lighting. No realtime shadows and post effects is just too limiting, I really hope they change that soon since .

MainManiac

Fingus wrote: »

That is a significant improvement. The colors and contrast is a lot more vibrant now.

If you're only using the Free version you're probably better off giving Cryengine or UDK a go since you'll have a lot more tools at your disposal. I love Unity but the Free version is very limited in terms of lighting. No realtime shadows and post effects is just too limiting, I really hope they change that soon since .

The game im planning to do environments for (so im practicing) with a friend is not going to be next gen quality, but I do want to eventuallymove to ce

Tobbo

Your updated screenshots look much better.

superdenny707

I agree, the updated shots rock socks

MainManiac

Thanks!

fmnoor

Does Unity do a lightmap only viewport?

You may find a useful excercise is getting a grey block scene with simple geometry and relighting it in different ways, trying to get different moods and altering the composition drastically (but keeping it interesting).

With no shaders to hide behind, a good looking lightmap only scene can be challenging to achieve.