Hi. I took a picture showing where the Atmosphere Sun Light option is located
As far as the point lights, I’m no expert and someone may be able to correct everything I’m saying, but from my knowing: Movable and Stationary Lights are dynamic lighting, with Movable being completely dynamic while Stationary is part baked and part dynamic.
Stationary) A Stationary Light will bake its shadows and bounced light when you build the lighting. This means that while in-game, you can change the color of the light, change its brightness, or even completely turn it off and on and the shadows will react as if a light was really being turned on and off. However, the catch to this is that you can’t move the light. If you bake the light, and then move it to another location, you’ll notice that the shadows will still move according to the light, but the shadows will display “Preview” on them, basically indicating that the baked light has been moved and now the viewport is just showing you what it will be like the next time you build the lighting.
Movable lighting) is completely dynamic. If you build the lighting and then decide you want to move the light somewhere else, the light will still be fully functional and built. Examples of this would be…I don’t know, a flashlight (more notably achieved with a Spotlight, though). That flashlight would have to be completely dynamic, otherwise it wouldn’t cast shadows. If the flashlight was Stationary, you’d be able to turn it on and off, but you wouldn’t be able to move it, so what’s the point.
Static lighting) is completely devoid of dynamics. You place it, build it, and then that’s it. As an example, if you place a SM_Rock (because it shows light bounces well) from the Starter Content, and then place a red static point light near it and then bake the lighting, it will have shadows and the rock will glow red as if there’s a light right next to it (because it is). However, if you reduce that light’s intensity to 0 - in other words, turn it off - the rock will still be glowing red and it will still have a shadow, because the static light illuminated the area permanently (by permanently, I mean until the light is re-built).
Something also to note, is that a Static light doesn’t affect the character at all. If you place a static light in the scene and build lighting, then run your character under it, the character won’t have any light shining on it and also won’t cast a shadow. However if you change the light to Stationary or Movable, the character will cast a shadow and it will also move in real-time. (Stationary character shadows seem glitchy, but I’m not sure if that’s fixable – Movable character shadows are fully and properly cast).
As you guessed it, Movable lighting is on the high end in terms of performance usage. I don’t know the exact numbers but I’ve played enough games to see that I’ve lagged extremely bad in very simple scenes, and I would always attribute that to bad lighting optimization. I say use it where it’s needed. Also to note, I made these tests in a starter level using third person blueprint. I disabled the “Cast shadows” on the Directional light so the shadows will come off specifically from the Point Light that was set up. (This was just done for the test purposes). If you want some scenes to be lit in certain colors in certain spots, or want to just light up dark areas, then go with Static. I was using Stationary lights until recently when I realized that the lights were affecting my character and he was glowing uncontrollably when I ran in front of the light.
I personally can’t say when you should or shouldn’t use what type of light, but I do know that in most cases, there’s no need to have 20 movable lights all in one room. I would just use Movable lights when, like said, it was something on the course of a flashlight or maybe a creepy ceiling lamp that is randomly swinging around showing no signs of stopping, and you want that eerie shadow swinging around the room as you walk in.
For the lens flare effect, are you talking about when you’re in a dark room and then run to an opening looking outside and it brightens your screen, and when you turn around to the room everything is dark? Or maybe not, Any way to get rid of a lot of effects, you can click [Show]](http://i.imgur.com/aOAlnYG.png) under the toolbar and then click Post-processing and uncheck Eye-adaptation or Lens Flare or whatever else. I think that might only work while in editor-view and not while in-game but I forgot how to disable it while in-game. Hope this helped.
