Question of Baked lighting and games with day / night cycles.
![[Deleted User]](https://polycount.com/themes/polycount/design/default-avatar.gif){kind=avatar}
polycounter lvl 2
Hello. I was wondering if you guys could answer a question I have with the matter of using baked lighting along with a day / night cycle and how it is usually done in games today and in the past. More specifically, I'm confused on the two concepts seeming to contradict each other. Baking lighting and shadows are supposed to stay on the surface they are baked on to correct? Then how do developers accomplish a day / night cycle where the lighting is constantly changing without making everything have dynamic lighting? Do they animate the light / shadow somehow?
Replies
Depends on the engine used.
For unreal 4, for a day an night cycle, you'd be unable to use lightmass to cast shadows in your game. Youd possibly still bake the ambient though. For a day and night cycle in Unreal 4 you'd need to use the in built in dynamic lighting tools. I think the latest Distance Field GI solution covers day an night cycles effectively in this engine.
But yea, you can't bake shadows and also have a day and night cycle.
You can actualy tell certain lights to pre-compute lightmass. Say, if you had an interior area you wanted shadows in.