Lighting a mobile game scene without real time lights

Abstract

Lights are an important tool in a video game maker's toolkit. They lead the player, set the mood, and are an integral part of visual storytelling. However, real time lights have high performance costs and are difficult to run on mobile devices, and with the ever-growing interest in mobile gaming it is important to learn how to make optimized lights for mobile devices with limited resources.

The objective of this thesis was to study the best practices of optimizing light for mobile games. Optimization techniques for Unity game engine projects were also studied while conducting research for this thesis.

The gathered information from professionals, online articles and Unity’s own online manuals were then put into practice by creating a demonstration in the form of a fully lit mock-up of a video game lobby scene in Unity game engine. Multiple optimization techniques were used in the scene, including lightmaps, light probes, and batching. Use of the optimized lighting proved to be beneficial for the scene, providing an atmosphere unobtainable without lights.