Lightmaping improvements?

[SmartPolygon]

@darthviper107

Unity doesn’t split one object across lightmaps, it can still only apply one lightmap per mesh, just the same as UE4. It works the same as UE4 does, in that it can combine lightmaps together into larger images so it can use one lightmap for multiple objects. Meaning it can’t use multiple lightmaps for a single mesh. UE4 also applies padding in between meshes to help with seams. But there’s other reasons that seams will show up.
The biggest problem with UE4 lighting is that it processes objects individually, which means that you can have free CPU threads but they can’t work together on an object, and it also means that they don’t share lighting data which will cause slight variations between objects. I’m not sure if Unity has a similar issue, their light baking systems have been a mess for a while, it generally renders slower than UE4 in my experience.

Hmmm, I was almost sure it did split lightmaps per material. Maybe I was wrong. Still Unity handles automatic UVs a lot better, and has proper objects hierarchy system which makes importing millions times easier. When it comes to baking, Unity 2018 is on a whole new level now. Love the progressive rendering!

By the way, speaking of lighting, on the side note, I didn’t try yet new area lights in UE4.20. I’ve been waiting for sooooo long for that Definitely have to check it out!