i am testing some archviz options in ue4 lately.
is there a way to have a light only shine on one or some selected objects, ignoring all other objects for lightmass calculations ?
this would sometimes be very handy !
thx
stucki
Hey stucki -
The engine doesn’t do this by default as it wants to treat lighting as much like the real world as possible. There is a workaround though using the level system. Here is an example of how it would be setup:
When you first start a project, everything is building in the persistent level (this is your base *.umap file). Before adding anything, create a new level in the level viewport and make it current. Let’s say I am doing the house interior in this level. I place geometry, assets and lights for the interior of the house in this level. Now I want to do the exterior around the house. In the level viewport again I create a new level and make it current and again add all geometry, assets and lighting for the exterior of the house into this level.
The trick here is to turn off the exterior level (hid in world) and build lighting ONLY for the interior level then do the exact opposite after the interior is built. If setup correctly you will have control over the lighting based on what levels the lighting is in and what is visible when it is being built.
I will give you warning that this can cause errors in how light behaves when everything is turned on. By that I mean an error much in the same way an artist can make a mistake shadowing a particular element from the wrongs side based on the rest of her drawing.
This is a great way though if you are very careful in teh setup to really control where there is and is not lighting.
Thank You
Eric Ketchum