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Junior Member
How can you light up dark track without triggering the visible light limit?
What are some good ideas for lighting a "dark" track? Using one point light set to a large area is not an option when it's full of objects that block the light. Using any more than 10 or 12 lights close to each other often exceeds the limit on visible lights. So it's difficult to light up large areas in a dark track without exceeding the limit. Can lights be "hidden" so as to not count towards the limit yet still light up the track properly? Effects with light also count toward the limit. How can you use several effects and also light large areas at the same time without triggering the error? Then there's also the problem of lights turning off when you move away. But that's another story.
thanks
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Senior Member
If it's outside, you can use the sun/moon/ area condition to change it, lots of settings to change like Sun/sky brightness / Ambient color for shadowy parts.
Indoor I either work with exposure from the (custom)camera itself, add lights when I need them. On a dark track I turn off checkpoint lights cause the emission is fine in most cases.
You can also add a light that follows the bike (I use a physics joint to make it move 1 on 1 with the bike's movements).
I turn off lights from fire effects/explosions whenever there's too many. On a burning area I tend to use a custom light or just 1 light on the biggest effect, whatever looks better.
Lots of the wall lights got Dynamic shadows which take the biggest performance hit, so I usually turn the shadow to static.
Lately I really optimize my tracks even further by turning off lights/particle effects/animations in sections that aren't in view, and use triggers to turn them on whenever I get near, and then turn them off again when I got well past them on the next checkpoints.
Of course this can get complicated with the "reset in checkpoint restart" when used in large numbers but it definately optimizes performance.
On curved tracks it's a bit more complicated, as more things tend to get in view when it's a left turn with the standard camera position.
On 1 hand you want it to look good, on other hand you don't want many extra lights/effects to render (even if they are behind terrain/objects the game will still process it, I always reduce object distance to around 400meter to reduce baseworld objects, and area clear a lot of the rest I don't want).
I know some of those options are pretty much more advanced stuff, feel free to ask