Unreal 3 Lighting
By: Sarai Smallwood
Supervisor: Chad Walker
Masters of Interactive Technology degree conferred June 19, 2008
Thesis / Project completed: January 2, 2009

Lighting is growing in importance because there is such an emphasis on how a game looks; this is evidenced through the very nature of video games itself. The driving force behind games is emergent technology. This technology demands that there is an increased importance on lighting.

My Masters Thesis focused on the exploration of the Unreal Editors lighting system, which provides lights that are found in any 3D software application; point, spot, directional, and sky lights. Lighting is a very complex subject that takes time and effort to understand, implement, and master. Game lighting is has its own unique and challenging issues, since you have to take into account the players interaction with the environment. This six month exploration presented many of those challenges and more. Although I am not a master of game lighting I have developed a technique that I can expand upon in the future.

There are many ways in which lighting is handled in games. Various techniques exist to minimize the amount of memory needed to create good lighting in games. There are many techniques that can be used in order to create a game that runs smoothly and efficiently. Throughout my time in working with the unreal 3 engine I have discovered some techniques as well as learning the techniques of other on how to achieve desired results. This level consisted of a lot of trial and error but well worth it in order to fully understand not only the process of lighting a level in engine but also learning the entire pipeline of how a level is created.

Testers were chosen to play through the level so that statistics and opinions can be made about the lighting and mood that they felt from the level. The testers varied from Guildhall students to people from internet forums. The results of the test revealed that lighting in itself cannot make a level, but a combination of good texturing and modeling.

Download entire thesis (.pdf)