CryptoMares is there a way to enable RTX raytracing and whatever the alternative from AMD will be called?
not yet, we are at least a year away from that. although RTX has been used on some games that didn't have it like half-life, I wouln't know how this works if it's like the old nvidia override settings for games or requires coding into the game.
this is an ANCIENT tech, and of course godot has it, through the LightmapGI
node:
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/3d/global_illumination/using_lightmap_gi.html
it requires you to reserve and properly import and setup the second UV
of your meshes, and setup the texture to bake the shadows into.
it also takes time to bake in engine, you need a good GPU and memory.
CryptoMares What are the ways to achieve the Mirror’s Edge 1 lighting, for example? Maybe it’s possible with the help of some external tools?
according to wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror%27s_Edge
wow, it runs on unreal 3, which had s**t lighting, but uses a modification to use baked lightmaps like half-life and quake had.
baked lightmaps have continued to be used in games like rage, and into the modern day. in fact it was the only working lighting solution for unity, specially after they deprecated enlighten.
but if you are asking for RTX, that means you have a powerful PC.
godot offers other forms of lighting (I might make a tutorial on lighting at some point).
basically, for low end hardware, use reflection probes
. lots of reflection probes, one for every room, they offer acceptable lighting at good performance, with some artifacts.
for closed spaces and small levels, use a VoxelGI
. VoxelGI
is the best lighting solution, but quality is reduced with size. so a small room with a voxelGI
can look just as good as RTX, but the bigger the level, the lower the quality. I'm not sure if it's bugged or just my GPU, but I could not get more than 2 voxelGI working at the same time.
for open space and big levels, that need to connect with interior areas like tunnels and buildings, we have SDFGI
, which I have been testing recently.
SDFGI
has bad quality, but works good enough with open spaces, and with thick walls like castles and temples or caves. you have to design the level to fit the geometry to the size of the SDFGI
cascades, to avoid light leaking. the same is true of voxelGI
, but it's more flexible.
SDFGI
is being replace hopefully in 4.4 with a new new system called HDDAGI
, which will be faster, more stable, and have better quality.
in comparison with other engines, unreal uses a form of SDFGI
as the default lumen when not using raytrace.
finally lightmapGI
, for levels that don't change, where the sun is always in the same position and the walls are solid. it has to be combined with reflection probes for reflections.
alternatively we also have SSR
for reflections. it goes well in combination with SDFGI
and probably with lightmapGI
.
CryptoMares This sounds great tbh, does anyone have a workflow figured out for this? I prefer Blender.
you need to create 2 UVs, one for the textures and one for the lightmap.
for the lightmap, bake shadows and ambient occlusion and then combine them in an image editing software by multiplying AO by shadows.
this lightmap has to then be used with a custom shader, and plugged into the EMISSION
using a second UV
.
or you can keep the separate and plug the shadows to EMISSION
and ambient occlusion to AO
.