Baked Lighting vs Real-Time 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 rtgi to create visually stunning and realistic real-time graphics, especially in video games, architectural visualizations, and virtual reality, where accurate lighting enhances immersion and visual fidelity. 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
Real-Time Global Illumination
Developers should learn RTGI to create visually stunning and realistic real-time graphics, especially in video games, architectural visualizations, and virtual reality, where accurate lighting enhances immersion and visual fidelity
Pros
- +It's crucial for modern game engines and graphics pipelines to support dynamic lighting scenarios, such as moving light sources or changing environments, without pre-baked solutions
- +Related to: ray-tracing, path-tracing
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 Real-Time Global Illumination if: You prioritize it's crucial for modern game engines and graphics pipelines to support dynamic lighting scenarios, such as moving light sources or changing environments, without pre-baked solutions 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