Lighting window reference
Explore the properties and settings in the Lighting window to customize lighting.
Read time 8 minutesLast updated 13 days ago
The Lighting window (menu: Window > Rendering > Lighting) is the main control point for Unity’s lighting features. You can use the Lighting window to adjust settings related to the lighting in your Scene, and to optimise your precomputed lighting data for quality, bake time, and storage space.
Related APIs
You can perform many of the functions available in the Lighting window in scripts, using the LightingSettings and Lightmapping APIs.
Lighting window layout
The Lighting window contains the following elements:
- The Scene tab
- The Adaptive Probe Volumes tab - Universal Render Pipeline (URP) and High-Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) only
- The Environment tab
- The Realtime Lightmaps tab
- The Baked Lightmaps tab
- The control area, at the bottom of the window
The Scene tab
The tab displays information about the Lighting Settings Asset that is assigned to the active Scene. If no Lighting Settings Asset is assigned to the active Scene, it displays information about the default LightingSettings object.
Scene
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The Scene tab is divided into the following sections:
- Lighting Settings Asset controls
- Lighting settings - Realtime Lighting, Mixed Lighting and Lightmapping settings
Lighting Settings Asset controls
Use the controls in this section to assign a Lighting Settings Asset to the active Scene, or to create a new Lighting Settings Asset.
Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Lighting Settings | The Lighting Settings Asset assigned to the active Scene. |
| New Lighting Settings | Click this button to generate a new Lighting Settings Asset in your Project, and automatically assign the new Lighting Settings Asset to the active Scene. |
Lighting Settings
Use this section to view and edit the properties of the Lighting Settings Asset or object assigned to the current Scene. See Lighting Settings Asset.
LightingSettingsThe Adaptive Probe Volumes tab - URP and HDRP only
The Adaptive Probe Volumes tab contains settings related to Adaptive Probe Volumes (APV). This tab only appears if you use URP or HDRP in your project. Refer to the following for more information:
The Environment tab
The Environment tab contains settings related to environmental lighting effects for the current Scene. The contents depend on the render pipeline that your Project uses.
The Environment tab is divided into two sections:
Environment
The Environment section contains lighting-related settings and controls that apply to the environmental lighting in the current scene, such as the Skybox, diffuse lighting and reflections.
Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Skybox Material | A Skybox is a Material that appears behind everything else in the Scene to simulate the sky or other distant background. Use this property to choose the Skybox you want to use for the Scene. The default value is the built-in Default Skybox. |
| Sun Source | Select a Light to use as the sun in your Scene. Unity uses this Light to simulate the effect of sun position and intensity on the Skybox and your Scene. If you set this to None, Unity considers the brightest directional light in the Scene the sun. Lights whose Render Mode property is set to Not Important do not affect the Skybox. For more information about the Render Mode setting, see the Additional settings section of Lights. |
| Realtime Shadow Color | Define the color that Unity uses to render real-time shadows when Lighting Mode in the Lighting Settings asset is set to Subtractive. For more information, refer to Lighting Mode. |
| Environment Lighting | This section contains settings that affect ambient light in the current Scene. |
| Source | Use this to define a source color for ambient light in the Scene. The default value is Skybox. The options are:
|
| Intensity Multiplier | Use this to set the brightness of the ambient light in the Scene, defined as a value between 0 and 8. The default value is 1. |
| Environment Reflections | This section contains global settings for Reflection Probe baking, and settings that affect global reflections. |
| Source | Use this setting to specify whether you want to use the Skybox for reflection effects, or a Cubemap of your choice. The default value is Skybox. The options are:
|
| Resolution | Use this to set the resolution of the Skybox for reflection purposes. This property is visible only when Source is set to Skybox. |
| Cubemap | Use this to specify the Cubemap to use for reflection purposes. This property is visible only when Source is set to Cubemap. |
| Compression | Use this to define whether or not reflection textures are compressed. The default setting is Auto. The options are:
|
| Intensity Multiplier | The degree to which the reflection source is visible in reflective objects. |
| Bounces | A reflection bounce occurs when a reflection from one object is then reflected by another object. Use this property to set how many times the Reflection Probes evaluate bounces back and forth between objects. If this is set to 1, then Unity only takes the initial reflection (from the skybox or cube map specified in the Reflection Source property) into account. |
Other Settings
Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Fog | Enables or disables fog in the Scene. Note that fog is not available with the Deferred rendering path. For more information, refer to Fog settings. |
| Halo Texture | Set the Texture you want to use for drawing a Halo around lights. |
| Halo Strength | Define the visibility of Halos around Lights, from a value between 0 and 1. |
| Flare Fade Speed | Define the time (in seconds) over which lens flares fade from view after initially appearing. This is set to 3 by default. |
| Flare Strength | Define the visibility of lens flares from lights, from a value between 0 and 1. |
| Spot Cookie | Set the Cookie texture you want to use for Spot Lights. The default is 'Soft'. To revert to 'Soft', select None. |
Fog settings
Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Color | Use the color picker to set the color Unity uses to draw fog in the Scene. |
| Fog Mode | Define the way in which the fogging accumulates with distance from the camera. For more information, refer to Fog Mode dropdown. The options are:
|
The Realtime Lightmaps tab
The Realtime Lightmaps tab shows a list of all lightmaps generated by the Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination system in the current Scene. If Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination is not enabled in your Project, this tab will be empty.
The Baked Lightmaps tab
This tab displays a list of all the lightmaps generated by the lightmapper for the current scene, and the Lighting Data Asset.
If you use Scene view Draw Modes to preview lightmapping, the tab also contains the temporary lightmaps Unity generates for the preview.
If Baked Global Illumination is not enabled in your Project, the tab is empty.
Control area
Controls for precomputing lighting data are at the bottom of the Lighting window.
Property | Description |
|---|---|
| GPU Baking Device | Use this to change the GPU that Unity uses for precomputing lighting data. This property is visible only when you use the GPU Progressive Lightmapper backend. |
| GPU Baking Profile | The profile you select in this property defines how the GPU Lightmapper breaks lightmaps into smaller tiles to reduce GPU memory usage. The options are:
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| Bake on Scene Load | Set whether Unity automatically generates precomputed lighting data. The options are:
|
| Generate Lighting | Select the Generate Lighting button to precompute lighting data. This data includes lightmaps for the Baked Global Illumination system, lightmaps for the Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination system, Light Probes, Adaptive Probe Volumes, and Reflection Probes. Edits you make after starting the bake process using the Generate Lighting button do not affect baked lighting. The dropdown options are:
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