Introduction

In order to help our users get familiar with our lightmapping tools, I have created a list of learning resources. They come in three flavors: written material, videos, and Unity projects. Content included here comes from official sources, or from our trusted partners.

Written material

Documentation and tutorials

• Lighting Overview – Unity Manual
• Setting up the Lighting Pipeline – Unity Manual
• Making believable visuals in Unity – Unity Learn
• Creative Core: Lighting – Unity Learn
• Introduction to Lighting and Rendering – Unity Learn
• Lighting optimization with Precomputed Realtime GI – Unity Learn
• The definitive guide to lighting in the High Definition Render Pipeline – Unity E-book
• Introduction to the Universal Render Pipeline for advanced Unity creators – Unity E-book
• Light baked Prefabs & other tips to get 60 fps on low-end phones – Unity how-to article

Unity Blog

• Static Lighting with Light Probes
• Lighting tips & tricks in the ADAM films
• Create high-quality light fixtures in Unity

Forum posts

• Progressive Lightmapper Troubleshooting Guide
• Blocky artifacts appear when I bake a scene. How can I fix them?
• [2021.2] New Features in Lighting
• [2020.1] New Feature – Baked Light Cookies
• [2020.1] New Feature – Russian Roulette and Sampling Improvements
• [2020.1] New Feature – Lighting Settings Asset
• [2020.1] New Feature – Auto Pack Margin

Video presentations

YouTube channel

• How to build Lightmaps in Unity 2020.1 – Unity Tutorial
• Lighting & rendering tutorial for HDRP – Unite Now 2020
• Harnessing Light with URP and the GPU Lightmapper – Unite Now 2020
• Optimizing and Deploying Real-Time Ray Traced Global Illumination with RTXGI – Unite Copenhagen 2019
• Developing and optimizing a procedural game | The Elder Scrolls Blades – Unite Copenhagen 2019
• Progressive Lightmapper: An Introduction to Lightmapping in Unity – Unite Berlin 2018
• Bake it ’til you make it: An intro to Lightmaps – Unite Europe 2017
• Advanced Global Illumination in Unity 5 – Unite Boston 2015

GDC talks

• Intel Open Image Denoise in Unity: Open Source Denoising for Lightmaps – GDC 2019
• Make It Shiny: Unity’s Progressive Lightmapper and Shader Graph – GDC 2018
• Lighting in Unity – GDC 2015

Unity projects

Asset Store

• Viking Village – Progressive Lightmapper, URP
• Adventure – Sample Game – Progressive Lightmapper, Built-in RP
• Additive Loading Lighting Examples – Progressive Lightmapper & Enlighten Realtime GI, Built-in RP
• Shader Calibration Scene – Enlighten Realtime GI, Built-in RP
• Corridor Lighting Example – Enlighten Realtime GI, Built-in RP
• The Courtyard – Enlighten Realtime GI, Built-in RP
• Lighting Optimisation Tutorial – Enlighten Realtime GI, Built-in RP

GitHub repositories

• Sponza – Progressive Lightmapper, HDRP
• Boat Attack – Progressive Lightmapper, URP
• Spaceship Demo – Progressive Lightmapper, HDRP
• Fontainebleau Demo – Progressive Lightmapper, HDRP
• The Alchemy Lab – Progressive Lightmapper, HDRP
• FPS Sample – Progressive Lightmapper, HDRP