lighting-and-lumen

name	lighting-and-lumen
description	Light Unreal scenes in C++ and configure them correctly — light component types (UDirectionalLightComponent, UPointLightComponent, USpotLightComponent, URectLightComponent, USkyLightComponent), mobility (Static/Stationary/Movable) and its impact on GI, baking, and runtime cost, Lumen global illumination and reflections (enabling, quality settings, hardware vs software ray tracing), Virtual Shadow Maps, sky and atmosphere (USkyAtmosphereComponent, UExponentialHeightFogComponent), post process volumes for exposure/auto-exposure and Lumen overrides, and reflection captures. Use when creating or configuring light components in C++, choosing light mobility, enabling or troubleshooting Lumen GI/reflections, setting up sky/fog/atmosphere, tuning exposure or color grading, placing reflection captures, or deciding between baked and dynamic lighting.
metadata	{"engine-version":"5.8","category":"world-building"}

Lighting & Lumen

UE5's default lighting pipeline is fully dynamic: Lumen provides global illumination (GI) and reflections without a bake. Understanding the light component hierarchy, mobility rules, and the Lumen/post-process stack lets you get correct and performant results quickly.

When to use this skill

• Creating or modifying a light component in C++ (type selection, intensity/color/units, attenuation, IES profiles, light functions).
• Choosing the right mobility for a light and understanding the GI/shadow consequences.
• Enabling, tuning, or debugging Lumen GI and Lumen Reflections.
• Setting up sky atmosphere, sky light, volumetric clouds, and exponential height fog.
• Configuring post process volumes for exposure, auto-exposure, bloom, color grading, or per-area Lumen overrides.
• Placing reflection captures for areas Lumen cannot reach (legacy or spec-heavy interiors).
• Deciding when to use baked Lightmass vs Lumen.

Light component hierarchy

All light components derive from USceneComponent through the following chain:

USceneComponent
└─ ULightComponentBase        (LightComponentBase.h:15) — Intensity, LightColor, CastShadows
   ├─ ULightComponent         (LightComponent.h:48)     — Temperature, ShadowBias, IES, LightFunction
   │  ├─ ULocalLightComponent (LocalLightComponent.h:18) — AttenuationRadius, IntensityUnits
   │  │  ├─ UPointLightComponent (PointLightComponent.h:19) — SourceRadius, SourceLength
   │  │  │  └─ USpotLightComponent (SpotLightComponent.h:17) — InnerConeAngle, OuterConeAngle
   │  │  └─ URectLightComponent  (RectLightComponent.h:24) — SourceWidth, SourceHeight, BarnDoorAngle
   │  └─ UDirectionalLightComponent (DirectionalLightComponent.h:18) — DynamicShadowCascades, bAtmosphereSunLight
   └─ USkyLightComponent      (SkyLightComponent.h:101)  — bRealTimeCapture, SourceType, Cubemap

See references/light-components-and-mobility.md for C++ patterns and per-type properties.

Light types at a glance

Component	Shape	Use for
UDirectionalLightComponent	infinite parallel rays	sun, moon, any directional source
UPointLightComponent	sphere/capsule omnidirectional	light bulbs, candles, explosions
USpotLightComponent : Point	cone	torches, headlights, stage spots
URectLightComponent	planar rectangle	TVs, windows, fluorescent strips
USkyLightComponent	cubemap capture	ambient IBL, sky bounce

Mobility and its lighting consequences

Mobility is set on the component via SetMobility(EComponentMobility::Movable).

Mobility	Direct light	Indirect light	Shadows	Runtime change
Static	baked into lightmaps	baked	baked	none
Stationary	dynamic direct, baked indirect	baked (Lightmass)	mixed (baked static, dynamic movable)	color/intensity only
Movable	fully dynamic	Lumen GI (no bake)	Virtual Shadow Maps	all properties

Key rule for Lumen: only Movable lights feed Lumen GI. Static lights are entirely stored in lightmaps and their contribution is disabled when Lumen is enabled. Stationary lights contribute baked indirect; their direct pass is dynamic.

Stationary limit: a single primitive can overlap at most four Stationary lights before the fifth reverts to fully dynamic (expensive). The editor shows this with a red channel-limit indicator.

Lumen (dynamic GI + reflections)

Lumen is the default GI system for new UE5 projects. It computes diffuse interreflection and specular reflections in real time, across scales from millimeters to kilometers.

Enabling: Project Settings → Rendering → Dynamic Global Illumination: Lumen; Reflection Method: Lumen. Enabling Lumen automatically enables Generate Mesh Distance Fields (required for software ray tracing) and disables precomputed lightmaps.

Two tracing modes:

• Software Ray Tracing — traces against Signed Distance Fields; works on all DX11+ hardware; requires Generate Mesh Distance Fields in project settings.
• Hardware Ray Tracing (HRT) — uses the GPU BVH; higher quality reflections and hit-lighting; enabled in Project Settings → Rendering → Hardware Ray Tracing.

Quality is tuned per-camera in a APostProcessVolume via FPostProcessSettings fields (all in Engine/Classes/Engine/Scene.h):

FPostProcessSettings field	Purpose
LumenSceneLightingQuality (line 1783)	fidelity of the Lumen scene cache
LumenFinalGatherQuality (line 1799)	noise vs cost of the final gather pass
LumenMaxTraceDistance (line 1811)	max ray length; too small leaks GI into caves
LumenReflectionQuality (line 1846)	reflection ray quality

See references/lumen-gi-and-reflections.md for the full Lumen settings table, emissive GI, and hardware ray tracing notes.

Virtual Shadow Maps (VSMs)

VSMs are the default shadow technology for Movable and Stationary lights when Lumen is active. They render into a virtualized (sparse) 16k×16k shadow atlas, support Nanite geometry natively, and require no per-light manual distance tuning.

Enable via Project Settings → Rendering → Shadows → Shadow Map Method: Virtual Shadow Maps. The CVars r.Shadow.Virtual.* control quality and cache behaviour.

Key shadow properties on ULightComponent (LightComponent.h):

• ShadowBias (line 113) / ShadowSlopeBias (line 123) — self-shadow acne
• ContactShadowLength (line 131) — screen-space contact shadow ray length
• CastShadows / CastDynamicShadows / CastStaticShadows — per-channel toggle

For UDirectionalLightComponent, cascaded shadow maps are set with DynamicShadowCascades (line 73) and DynamicShadowDistanceMovableLight (line 59).

See references/shadows-and-postprocess.md.

Sky, atmosphere, and fog

A complete outdoor sky in C++ uses three cooperating actors/components:

1. UDirectionalLightComponent with bAtmosphereSunLight = true — drives the sky color.
2. USkyAtmosphereComponent (Components/SkyAtmosphereComponent.h) — physically-based atmosphere scattering.
3. USkyLightComponent with bRealTimeCapture = true — recaptures the rendered sky every tick for ambient/IBL.

Fog depth and god rays come from UExponentialHeightFogComponent (Components/ExponentialHeightFogComponent.h). Enable volumetric fog on it for VolumetricFogScatteringDistribution and VolumetricFogAlbedo to feed Lumen GI.

Post Process Volume and exposure

APostProcessVolume (Engine/PostProcessVolume.h) hosts FPostProcessSettings (Engine/Scene.h:711). Set bUnbound = true for a global volume; bounded volumes blend by distance (Priority and BlendRadius fields).

Exposure settings in FPostProcessSettings:

• AutoExposureMethod (line 1491) — AEM_Histogram (default) or AEM_Basic
• AutoExposureBias (line 1933) — EV100 offset for all metering modes
• AutoExposureMinBrightness / AutoExposureMaxBrightness (lines 1994, 2002) — clamp the auto-exposure range (in EV100 or cd/m² depending on project setting)

For predictable results, prefer manual exposure over auto: set AutoExposureMethod to AEM_Manual and fix the EV100 directly with AutoExposureBias. Auto-exposure "breathes" as the camera pans, which reads as incorrect to players.

Color grading and tone curve live alongside exposure in the same struct; see references/shadows-and-postprocess.md.

Reflection captures (legacy / spec fill)

UReflectionCaptureComponent (Components/ReflectionCaptureComponent.h:30) and its concrete subclasses (USphereReflectionCaptureComponent, UBoxReflectionCaptureComponent) provide cubemap IBL for surfaces with low roughness in areas where Lumen reflections have insufficient quality (e.g., enclosed interiors or mobile targets). They are not updated at runtime by default; call MarkDirtyForRecaptureOrUpload() to force a refresh.

With Lumen enabled, reflection captures are mostly replaced by Lumen Reflections for Movable surfaces. They remain relevant for Static/Stationary geometry and as a fallback for hardware that does not meet Lumen's requirements.

C++ snippet — creating and configuring a light

// In actor constructor:
#include "Components/PointLightComponent.h"

UPROPERTY(VisibleAnywhere)
TObjectPtr<UPointLightComponent> FillLight;

// Constructor body:
FillLight = CreateDefaultSubobject<UPointLightComponent>(TEXT("FillLight"));
FillLight->SetupAttachment(RootComponent);
FillLight->SetIntensity(2000.f);           // lumens (with inverse-sq falloff)
FillLight->SetLightColor(FLinearColor(1.f, 0.95f, 0.8f));
FillLight->SetAttenuationRadius(600.f);
FillLight->CastShadows = true;

// Runtime: change intensity and disable shadow casting
FillLight->SetIntensity(500.f);
FillLight->SetCastShadows(false);

Key APIs on ULightComponent (all BlueprintCallable):

• SetIntensity(float) — total output in the component's intensity units
• SetLightColor(FLinearColor, bool bSRGB) — filter tint
• SetTemperature(float) / SetUseTemperature(bool) — color temperature (Kelvin)
• SetShadowBias(float) / SetShadowSlopeBias(float) — self-shadow tuning
• SetLightFunctionMaterial(UMaterialInterface*) — project a material as a cookie

On ULocalLightComponent:

• SetAttenuationRadius(float) — bounding radius; affects tile-culling cost
• SetIntensityUnits(ELightUnits) — Candelas, Lumens, or EV100

Gotchas

• Static lights ignored by Lumen — Lumen disables lightmap contributions; only Movable (and partially Stationary) lights drive dynamic GI.
• Mesh distance fields off — Lumen's software path silently degrades or produces black GI; enable in Project Settings → Rendering → Generate Mesh Distance Fields.
• More than four overlapping Stationary lights — fifth light degrades to Movable shadow cost; keep count per-area ≤ 4.
• Auto-exposure surprise — scenes look inconsistent as the camera moves; use manual exposure for cinematic or stylized work.
• Sky Light not recapturing — with bRealTimeCapture = false, the sky light bakes once; call RecaptureSky() or set bRealTimeCapture = true when the sky changes.
• VSM invalidation cost — moving or spawning many Movable meshes near shadowed lights forces cache invalidation; pool or batch spawn off-screen when possible.
• Rect lights and light functions — URectLightComponent does not support LightFunctionMaterial (only Directional/Point/Spot do).
• Lightmap UVs for baked lighting — if you fall back to Lightmass, meshes must have a valid lightmap UV channel or shadows bake black.

Version notes

• Lumen is the default GI system for new UE5 projects; existing UE4 projects converted to UE5 do not automatically enable it (avoids breaking baked workflows).
• MegaLights (bAllowMegaLights on ULightComponent, line 171) is a UE5.5+ feature for stochastic many-light rendering; present in 5.8 but still experimental.
• VSMs replaced the legacy Cascaded Shadow Map default for PC/console in UE5; mobile platforms still use traditional shadow maps.

References & source material

Engine source (UE 5.8, under Engine/Source/Runtime/Engine/Classes/):

• Components/LightComponentBase.h — ULightComponentBase:15; Intensity:37, LightColor:44, CastShadows:58, IndirectLightingIntensity:116, SetCastShadows():146, GetLightColor():150.
• Components/LightComponent.h — ULightComponent:48; Temperature:57, ShadowBias:113, ShadowSlopeBias:123, ContactShadowLength:131, bAllowMegaLights:171, LightFunctionMaterial:205, IESTexture:219, SetIntensity():286, SetLightColor():296, SetTemperature():303.
• Components/LocalLightComponent.h — ULocalLightComponent:18; IntensityUnits:28, AttenuationRadius:46, SetAttenuationRadius():53.
• Components/PointLightComponent.h — UPointLightComponent:19; SourceRadius:45, SourceLength:59, SetSourceRadius():71.
• Components/SpotLightComponent.h — USpotLightComponent:17; InnerConeAngle:23, OuterConeAngle:27.
• Components/RectLightComponent.h — URectLightComponent:24; SourceWidth:33, SourceHeight:40, BarnDoorAngle:46, BarnDoorLength:52.
• Components/SkyLightComponent.h — USkyLightComponent:101; bRealTimeCapture:108, SourceType:112, RecaptureSky():304.
• Components/DirectionalLightComponent.h — UDirectionalLightComponent:18; DynamicShadowDistanceMovableLight:59, DynamicShadowCascades:73, bAtmosphereSunLight:164.
• Components/ReflectionCaptureComponent.h — UReflectionCaptureComponent:30.

Official docs (UE 5.8):

• Light Types and Their Mobility — https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/unreal-engine/light-types-and-their-mobility-in-unreal-engine
• Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections — https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/unreal-engine/lumen-global-illumination-and-reflections-in-unreal-engine
• Shadowing — https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/unreal-engine/shadowing-in-unreal-engine
• Virtual Shadow Maps — https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/unreal-engine/virtual-shadow-maps-in-unreal-engine
• Post Process Effects — https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/unreal-engine/post-process-effects-in-unreal-engine

Deep-dive references in this skill:

• references/light-components-and-mobility.md — per-type component properties, C++ authoring patterns, mobility decision guide.
• references/lumen-gi-and-reflections.md — Lumen architecture, settings table, hardware vs software RT, emissive GI, sky integration.
• references/shadows-and-postprocess.md — VSMs, CSMs, shadow bias, post process volume exposure, color grading, Lumen PPV overrides.

Related skills: nanite-and-rendering, materials-and-shaders.