Baked Lighting vs Global Illumination
Developers should use baked lighting when creating scenes with static geometry and lighting, such as indoor environments, pre-rendered backgrounds, or games where performance is critical and real-time lighting calculations are too expensive meets developers should learn global illumination when working on projects requiring high-quality, realistic graphics, such as aaa video games, virtual reality experiences, or simulation software. Here's our take.
Baked Lighting
Developers should use baked lighting when creating scenes with static geometry and lighting, such as indoor environments, pre-rendered backgrounds, or games where performance is critical and real-time lighting calculations are too expensive
Baked Lighting
Nice PickDevelopers should use baked lighting when creating scenes with static geometry and lighting, such as indoor environments, pre-rendered backgrounds, or games where performance is critical and real-time lighting calculations are too expensive
Pros
- +It is ideal for achieving realistic global illumination, soft shadows, and ambient occlusion without the computational overhead of dynamic lighting, making it suitable for mobile games, VR applications, or projects targeting lower-end hardware
- +Related to: global-illumination, lightmaps
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
Global Illumination
Developers should learn Global Illumination when working on projects requiring high-quality, realistic graphics, such as AAA video games, virtual reality experiences, or simulation software
Pros
- +It is essential for achieving natural lighting effects that improve immersion and visual appeal, particularly in real-time rendering engines like Unreal Engine or Unity
- +Related to: ray-tracing, real-time-rendering
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
The Verdict
Use Baked Lighting if: You want it is ideal for achieving realistic global illumination, soft shadows, and ambient occlusion without the computational overhead of dynamic lighting, making it suitable for mobile games, vr applications, or projects targeting lower-end hardware and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.
Use Global Illumination if: You prioritize it is essential for achieving natural lighting effects that improve immersion and visual appeal, particularly in real-time rendering engines like unreal engine or unity over what Baked Lighting offers.
Developers should use baked lighting when creating scenes with static geometry and lighting, such as indoor environments, pre-rendered backgrounds, or games where performance is critical and real-time lighting calculations are too expensive
Disagree with our pick? nice@nicepick.dev