Hello there once again,
I am back continuing the Development Tips and Tricks series. This is the second installation of this series (you can see the first one (Building T&T) here!)
Before moving on to the tips and tricks for lighting, I’d like to introduce myself. I am xPro_Do, and I have been building (among other things 
) for upwards of 5 years now. I currently work with DanteManee’s TGR as a Builder (and occasionally animator). Aside from that, I do commissions here and there (Portfolio here), and in recent times just some developing for fun. Enough about me now, let’s move on to the Lighting Tips and Tricks.
Lighting is a key component to games, it can drastically improve the quality and look of what you are creating. To start off, there are 4 types of lighting modes. You can look through these and change them in the properties of Lighting under “Technology”.
Under this, there are Future, ShadowMap, Voxel, and Compatibility. Now many of you may not know what each of these are, or what they mean. Below are some examples of each of the types of lighting.
After you have decided upon a lighting that you like and fits the game you are making, (I personally tend to use Future in most cases) there are settings you can tweak to further enhance your game’s lighting and overall feel.
In the Lighting properties, there are a total of four categories in which you can adjust and change the settings of. These four categories are Appearance, Data, Behavior, and Exposure. Diving into each one, we will begin with Appearance.
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Appearance: Under the Appearance category you can find the following:
- Ambient: The hue of the global lighting; this is what determines the tint for all of the objects in your game under workspace. (Choose a color to change this.)
- Brightness: This determines how much light each part receives under workspace. (This ranges from 0 to 10.)
- ColorShift_Bottom: The hue of lighting on the bottom of all the objects in the game.(Choose a color to change this.)
- ColorShift_Top: The hue of lighting on the top of all the objects in the game.(Choose a color to change this.)
- EnvironmentalDiffuseScale: This controls the amount of independent lighting that gets reflected from the environment.(This ranges from 0 to 1.)
- EnvironmentalSpecularScale: This controls the amount of dependent lighting that gets reflected from the environment.(This ranges from 0 to 1.)
- GlobalShadows: Determines whether or not objects in game have shadows. (Check/Uncheck)
- OutdoorAmbient: Changes the ambient of the game, (more shadow color and stuff). (Choose a color to change this.)
- ShadowSoftness: Determines how sharp (crisp) or soft (blurred) a shadow is.
- Technology: The type of lighting for the game. (Voxel, ShadowMap, Future, Compatibility)
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Data: Moving on past the Appearance category, is Data. (More technical side)
- ClockTime: Time of day it is in your game. This changes the position of the sun/moon (depending on the time of day), as well as the sky (day transitioning to night depending on the time). (This ranges from 0 to 24)
- GeographicLatitude: Changes the latitude (position of the game/where you are) relative to the sun.
- TimeOfDay: Further specifies the time of the day it is (will match ClockTime), but is more specific. (This ranges from 00:00:00 to 24:00:00)
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Behavior: (Only one setting in this category which doesn’t usually need to be changed.)
- Archivable: Determines if an instance can be saved or not when the game closes or attempts to save. (Again, not usually tampered with)
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Exposure: At the end of the properties, again with only one setting)
- ExposureCompensation: Changes the amount of exposure (light) in the game. (This ranges from -3 to 3)
When working on lighting, whether in a building, or a car, be sure to keep in mind the positioning of the sun/light that will be entering/reflecting off of the builds/terrain. Moving the sun around a bit (or even the builds in some cases) can significantly improve the scenery of what you are working on.
If say what you are creating has many windows, it would be beneficial to place it (or the sun (TimeOfDay/GeographicLatitude)) at a place where the sun shines through the windows into the interior. This example is one of many, but the point is to keep in mind the lighting of the scene.
Although this is a very easy trick, it is very important and a good thing to know when designing/creating games. If you want light to go through a brick, all you have to do is go inside of the brick’s properties, and uncheck “CastShadow”.
CastShadow in brick's summary
This will conclude the first part of the Lighting Tips and Tricks. The next part will go over the PointLight, SurfaceLight, and SpotLight, as well as their uses/where they can be best applied.
Thanks for stopping by,
xPro_Do
Do you have any tips or tricks that you’d like to share that I missed? Let us know in the comments down below, and your message could be pinned. If you have any other questions or areas of development you’d like covered, let me know and a post about it may be made.