Indirect lighting: choose a task and method
Find the right guide for bounced light, reflections or artistic fill lighting.
Start with the visible problem
| Desired result | Start here | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Lit level and shadows | Light sources | Placement, layers, range and shadow atlas |
| Understand indirect illumination | Direct and indirect light | Separate light transport from material brightness and reflections |
| Fill a dark side without GI | Manual fill light | Color, influence area and wall leaks |
| Bake static-level lighting | LightmapGI | Lightmap UV preparation, baking and moving-object behavior |
| Explore volumetric GI data | VoxelGI | Baked data, bounds and renderer support |
| Explore SDFGI | SDFGI | Level scale, updates and renderer support |
| Configure local reflections | ReflectionProbe | Capture, reflective materials, layers and updates |
Distinguish the effects
Ambient supplies general illumination without calculating light paths between walls. A manually placed OmniLight3D changes the image as an ordinary source. ReflectionProbe stores a local capture for reflections/configured ambient; it is not automatic physically accurate multi-bounce light transport.
SSAO adds screen-space contact darkening. Emission brightens a surface, while glow adds a halo. See Environment; none alone proves a complete GI solution.
Verify each path independently
Establish predictable direct light and correct materials, then add one mechanism. Keep camera, exposure and renderer constant across comparisons. Check output and CPU/GPU time; a boolean or attractive frame does not establish the whole project’s budget.
Practical verification for this section covers colored manual fill, range and shadows in Compatibility/OpenGL and Forward+/Vulkan. It does not certify every linked GI workflow. Current Compatibility source has no VoxelGI implementation; class presence is not evidence of support.