Lumen, along with other features of Unreal Engine 5, was first introduced to the public by Epic Games in May 2020. Lumen is a fully dynamic global illumination solution that immediately reacts to scene and light changes in Unreal Engine. It’s designed to offer a more natural and realistic lighting environment that can adapt in real time, eliminating the need to bake lighting, which is a common practice in game development for static scenes.
I had a great deal of fun playing with Lumen, although the realist in me assumes it won’t be coming to VR for a long time. Still, I played with various lighting scenarios in Unreal, appreciating the beautiful effects of how they interacted with my nanite meshes. This is really what gives the scene photorealism.
The Ultimate Sky tool for Unreal Engine is a plugin that provides a comprehensive solution for simulating realistic skies, weather, and lighting conditions within the engine. It typically includes features such as dynamic day-night cycles, customizable weather systems, cloud formations, and atmospheric effects. The tool is designed to enhance the visual quality of outdoor environments in games and interactive experiences by offering a high degree of control over the skybox and atmospheric conditions, often with performance optimization in mind to ensure smooth integration into various projects.
Ultimate Sky is used to create immersive environments that respond to time of day and weather patterns, contributing to the realism and dynamic nature of a virtual world. It’s particularly useful for developers who want to simulate outdoor conditions with accuracy and artistic control, without the need for extensive manual setup or customization.
One fun thing to set up in my project was to assign the accurate latitude and longitude to my sunlight, on at high noon in the middle of June. I intentionally chose this time and avoided more dramatic golden hour shots, because I really want this to feel as intensely summer as I can. I have of course experimented with other times of day, and you can see the results below.
