Lighting and Environment Master Class
Tutorial info  
Difficulty Beginner
Updated July 13, 2022
Software
CRYENGINE 5.6

In this master class, lighting artist Lars Hofrichter takes you on a deep dive into the beauty of the CRYENGINE lighting and environment tools, providing expert tips to configure interdependent settings for optimal results that you won't find anywhere else. In under 90 minutes, Lars walks you through every Environment Editor setting including SVOGI and volumetric fog, relevant console variables, setup for interior and exterior lighting, lighting and fog components, sky domes, clip volumes, hidden settings, and more.

       Start        Topic

  • 00:00:00 Editing shaders
  • 00:00:42 The Environment Editor
  • 00:01:27 Curve editor and dynamic time of day
  • 00:02:21 Enabling volumetric fog
  • 00:05:59 Sun specular multiplier
  • 00:06:51 Skybox settings
  • 00:07:38 Setting up a skybox texture in Photoshop
  • 00:09:11 Creating the sky material
  • 00:09:33 Fine tuning skybox materials in environment editor
  • 00:11:39 Volumetric fog settings in environment editor
  • 00:12:50 height (top) - volumetric fog
  • 00:13:35 density (top) - volumetric fog
  • 00:14:01 global density - volumetric fog
  • 00:14:56 global fog and interiors - volumetric fog
  • 00:15:47 Ramps with global - volumetric fog
  • 00:17:11 Fog color (atmosphere) - volumetric fog
  • 00:17:47 Anisotropy (atmosphere) - volumetric fog
  • 00:18:43 Color (sun radial) - volumetric fog
  • 00:19:08 Anisotropy (sun radial) - volumetric fog
  • 00:19:33 Radial blend factor - volumetric fog
  • 00:19:43 Range - volumetric fog
  • 00:20:39 In-scattering - volumetric fog
  • 00:21:20 Extinction - volumetric fog
  • 00:21:40 Analytical fog visibility - volumetric fog
  • 00:22:06 Final density clamp - volumetric fog
  • 00:22:10 Variables - Sky Light
  • 00:23:17 Night sky multiplier settings
  • 00:24:24 Volumetric clouds
  • 00:25:41 cloud shading
  • 00:26:37 Sun Rays Effect
  • 00:27:42 Advanced properties - tweaking ocean
  • 00:27:56 HDR tone mapping settings
  • 00:29:18 HDR saturation
  • 00:29:24 HDR color balance
  • 00:30:17 HDR exposure values (EV)
  • 00:31:51 Disabling HDR eye adaptation
  • 00:32:24 HDR EV auto compensation
  • 00:32:35 HDR bloom amount
  • 00:33:18 Filters
  • 00:34:11 Filters - photofilter color
  • 00:34:15 depth of field
  • 00:34:49 particle sorting issues with depth of field
  • 00:35:53 Shadows
  • 00:37:00 Constants
  • 00:37:42 Constants: Sun
  • 00:37:59 Constants: Moon
  • 00:38:44 Constants > Wind
  • 00:39:20 Breeze proxies
  • 00:39:38 Constants > cloud shadows
  • 00:40:17 Constants > Color Grading
  • 00:42:41 Constants > Total Illumination
  • 00:44:30 SVOGI > injection multiplier
  • 00:45:43 SVOGI > sky color multiplier
  • 00:46:06 sky color multiplier and fog top color+multiplier
  • 00:47:08 Constants > Total Illumination > Use TOD Sky Color
  • 00:48:08 Constants > Global Illumination > Specular Amplifier
  • 00:48:16 Constants > Global Illumination > Diffuse Bias
  • 00:48:52 Constants > Global Illumination > Cone Max Length
  • 00:49:01 Seeing the SVOGI voxel grid with e_svoDebug
  • 00:49:45 SVOGI >  Update Geometry
  • 00:50:50 SVOGI >  Min Node Size
  • 00:51:25 SVOGI >  Low Spec Mode
  • 00:52:03 Constants > Total Illumination Advanced > Integration Mode
  • 00:52:23 SVOGI > Integration Mode
  • 00:52:51 Constants > Total Illumination Advanced > Number of Bounces
  • 00:53:18 SVOGI > Translucent Brightness
  • 00:54:12 Volumetric fog components
  • 01:01:22 fog volumes wind influence and noise
  • 01:03:47 Clip volumes to constrain lights and fog in interiors
  • 01:11:23 Vis Areas
  • 01:12:27 Portals with vis areas
  • 01:13:56 Projector light components
  • 01:16:19 project light shadows and minimum shadow graphics
  • 01:16:48 Limitations on shadow casters
  • 01:17:03 Modifying the maximum number of shadow casting lights
  • 01:17:29 Shadow bias settings on light components
  • 01:17:48 Attenuation bulb size - light components
  • 01:18:33 fog settings for light components
  • 01:19:25 SVOGI's bounce light and light components
  • 01:19:56 Attenuation bulb size and SVOGI
  • 01:20:16 light component animation settings
  • 01:20:43 creating custom light animations
  • 01:20:55 View Ratio property and seeing distant lights
  • 01:22:03 setting view dist ratio for light components
  • 01:22:27 Point light component
  • 01:23:18 area lights
  • 01:24:12 area lights and attenuation bulb size
  • 01:24:50 area lights and projection textures
     

YouTube Channel

All video tutorials are available on the CRYENGINE YouTube channel.

Documentation tutorials

Further tutorial content can be found on our Documentation pages.

Discord

Join discussions and provide feedback on a wide range of topics.

Asset database

A wide range of assets, ready to use in your CRYENGINE projects.