Lighting in Unreal Engine 5

Name: Lighting in Unreal Engine 5
Author: Ken Geary

Learn about the many different lighting options and how to apply them.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 3 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, in this lesson we'll learn about the different types of lights in Unreal Engine. Launch Unreal Engine and create a new project. Select games, them blank. Make sure starter content is checked on. We will name this project lighting. Click create. We'll be using this project for the next few lessons. We want to start from nothing for this lesson. So go to file, then select new level. We're gonna choose the empty level. The level is dark as we expect. Let's set the grid snap to 100 units and let's save our level by selecting file, save current level as, right click, create a new folder. We'll name this maps. Double click to enter the folder. We'll name this level one, and save. We'll set our project to load this level every time we open Unreal Engine. Click settings, project settings, in the search window type default. Scroll down a little. Under your default maps, we wanna select level one and game default map, level one. Exit preferences. Be sure we're still on level one, which we are. You can do a file save if you'd like. Now we will build a very simple room. Change your render node by clicking the lit icon and select unlit. This allows you to see objects without lighting. Open the content drawer, then the content main folder, click open the starter content, then the architecture folder. Drag in a floor, 400 by 400, into the middle of your viewport. Enable move tool with the W key Move the floor until it's about center with the grid. Then drag in a wall window, 400 by 400 on top of the floor. Drag to the left edge, then drag in a wall 400 by 400 , on top of the floor, drag to the right edge. You can easily duplicate an object with the move, rotate or scale tool enabled. Make sure the right wall is selected. Press the E key to rotate, then hold down the alt key and click a drag to blue gizmo. This will make a duplicate and rotate it at the same time. We wanna rotate this to 90 degrees. Select the right wall once more. Hold down the alt key, click and drag the red circle until you rotate at 90 degrees. Hit the W key, move up to make this a ceiling. Open the content drawer, click save all, then save selected. Click to floor , hit F to center it, to orbit around, adjust your view, zoom out a little bit, and you do that with your scroll wheel, hold the alt key in your right mouse button. Once you're happy with the centered room, pull that a little bit, we're gonna make a bookmark. Go to the hamburger menu, select bookmarks, set bookmark, we'll make this bookmark 1. Now anytime we move around our view, and we wanna get back to that view we had that we liked, hit the 1 key. Thanks for watching.

Beginner Provider : Ken Geary 3 Lessons · 16m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

Unreal Engine 5 renders your levels in with high-quality lighting that can be baked in the traditional way, or provide ray-tracing and global illumination in real time. In these lessons, you will learn about the many different lighting actors and how to use them in your level. They include a point light, spot light, sky light. You can even emit light in real time from an emissive material exclusive to Unreal Engine 5.

These options include point light, which acts like a light bulb; spot light, which casts a cone of light as you might see with a theater light or flashlight; directional lights, which act similar to the way sunlight works with parallel light rays; and sky light, which takes a sample of the entire level environment and casts a global light into your level.

Turning on the Lumen option turns static lights, which require light baking, a time- consuming effort, into real-time dynamic lighting and shadows. Light bounces off objects can be adjusted to simulate how lights work in the real world. Adding a post-process VFX volume allows you full control over areas of your level or cover infinite space for exposure, bloom, vignettes, lens flares, color correction, and many other effects.

What You'll Learn

Use the different lighting actors in Unreal Engine 5, including point light, spot light, directional light, and sky light
Apply Lumen to convert static lights into real-time dynamic lighting and shadows without time-consuming light baking
Adjust light bounces off objects to simulate how lights work in the real world
Add post-process VFX volumes to control lighting effects across specific level areas or infinite space
Emit light in real time from an emissive material exclusive to Unreal Engine 5
Control exposure, bloom, vignettes, lens flares, and color correction using post-process effects

Key Takeaways

Unreal Engine 5 can render levels with lighting that is baked in the traditional way or provided through real-time ray-tracing and global illumination.
A point light acts like a light bulb, a spot light casts a cone of light like a theater light or flashlight, directional lights produce parallel rays similar to sunlight, and a sky light samples the entire level environment to cast a global light.
Turning on the Lumen option converts static lights, which require time-consuming light baking, into real-time dynamic lighting and shadows.
A post-process VFX volume gives full control over level areas or infinite space for exposure, bloom, vignettes, lens flares, color correction, and other effects.
An emissive material exclusive to Unreal Engine 5 can emit light in real time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What lighting actors does this course cover?

The course covers point light, which acts like a light bulb; spot light, which casts a cone of light like a theater light or flashlight; directional lights, which work like sunlight with parallel light rays; and sky light, which samples the entire level environment and casts a global light into your level.

What is Lumen and how is it covered in this course?

The course teaches Lumen options. Turning on Lumen converts static lights, which otherwise require time-consuming light baking, into real-time dynamic lighting and shadows.

What does the post-process portion of the course teach?

It teaches how to add a post-process VFX volume that gives full control over areas of your level or infinite space for exposure, bloom, vignettes, lens flares, color correction, and many other effects.

What lessons are included in this course?

The course includes three lessons: Types of Lights Part 1, Types of Lights Part 2, and Add Post-Process Visual Effects.

What skills does this course help develop?

This course relates to skills including Color Rendering, Daylight Modeling, Ray Tracing, Rendering, Unreal Development Kit, and Unreal Engine.