Real-Time Global Illumination vs Baked Lighting

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 meets 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. Here's our take.

Real-Time Global Illumination

Nice Pick

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

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

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

The Verdict

Use Real-Time Global Illumination if: You want 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 and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Baked Lighting if: You prioritize 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 over what Real-Time Global Illumination offers.

The Bottom Line

Real-Time Global Illumination wins

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