Lighting & Shadows
Lighting plays a crucial role in setting the mood and realism of your scene. Combined with skyboxes and shadows, lights can dramatically enhance depth, contrast, and interactivity in your Verses.
By understanding different light types and shadow settings, you can create immersive and visually compelling experiences while optimizing performance for different devices.
Types of Lights in XR Creator Studio
There are several light sources available in XR Creator Studio, each serving a specific function.
| Light Type | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ambient Light | Provides soft, even lighting that illuminates all objects in the scene. |
| Hemisphere Light | Lights the scene from directly overhead, useful for outdoor or sky-lit environments. |
| Directional Light | Casts parallel rays of light, illuminating the entire scene from a single direction, similar to sunlight. |
| Spot Light | Projects a cone of light, illuminating a specific area while fading out at the edges. |
| Point Light | Emits light in all directions from a single point, similar to a lamp or glowing object. |
🔹 Pro Tip: Combine different light types to create depth, shadows, and dynamic environments.
Adjusting Light & Shadow Settings
Shadow Settings
Each light type has unique shadow settings that affect performance, quality, and realism.
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Cast Shadows | Toggles shadow casting on/off. Objects can also be set to receive shadows. |
| Shadowmap Resolution | Controls the sharpness and quality of shadows. Lower resolution improves performance, while higher resolution provides better detail. |
| Shadow Bias | Adjusts the per-pixel offset of shadows to reduce artifacts like shadow acne. |
| Shadow Radius | Defines the softness and spread of shadows. Larger values create softer shadows, while smaller values result in sharper, defined shadows. |
🔹 Pro Tip: If you notice blocky or blurry shadows, experiment with shadowmap resolution and bias settings for the best balance of quality and performance.
Lighting Performance on Mobile Devices
Why Does Lighting Look Different on Mobile?
Some lighting effects are disabled or simplified on mobile devices to ensure better performance and faster rendering.
What to expect on mobile:
✅ Basic lighting remains functional (ambient, hemisphere, and point lights).
⚠️ Advanced shadows and lighting effects may be reduced or disabled.
❌ High-resolution shadows and complex lighting setups may not be supported.
🔹 Pro Tip: To ensure consistent lighting across all devices, test your scene on both desktop and mobile and adjust shadow settings accordingly.