How to light this level

[social_wizard]

Big noob to UE5 here (on my 4th day trying to learn the basics of level design and working the engine), and I’m having some trouble lighting the level I’m making. The setting is a vast cavern deep underground where a ruined old city lies (ignore the skybox, it’s supposed to be pitch black), and I want the primary light source to be a glowing sign hanging from the big building on the right of the picture. However, the area is very big, and the only light sources with even close to enough range to cover it are the Skylight and Directional Light. If I use either of those, however, the building from which the light is coming from is backlit, meaning it’s in complete darkness when it should be the very source of the light, and some of the landscape behind it is fully lit when it should be dark there.

I’d be grateful for any tips! It’s been a fun journey so far :^)

[jblackwell]

So, you first need to make sure that your landscape and geometry size makes sense relative to real-world units. Your build size is correct in meters. All of your lights should also use physical values (look up something like Unreal Engine PBR documentation). You can control how bright the lights are and how big the area they cast lights in via the intensity and attenuation checkboxes, but bear in mind that big point lights (especially when using shadowing methods that aren’t Megalights) will be VERY expensive.