One click gives you a complete, physically based base lighting: sky, sun or moon, sky light, fog, exposure and Lumen, all set up and linked. Day, sunset or night, with an HDRI or fully dynamic.

Lighting a level from scratch takes time: an HDRI, a sun that matches it, a sky light, fog, the exposure, Lumen settings… and real-world values that make sense together.

Kit-Lighting does it in one click.

Six one-click lightings

• HDRI lighting (most realistic): Day, Sunset and Night. The sun or moon is found in the HDRI, aimed and tinted to match the sky.

• Sky Atmosphere lighting (no HDRI): Day, Sunset and Night, with volumetric clouds and a real-time sky light. Rotate the sun and the sky, clouds and light follow.

Use your own HDRI. Drop any HDRI and click a time of day. The kit:

• finds the sun in the image and points the directional light at it;

• calibrates the HDRI brightness (the backdrop intensity stays at 1);

• feeds the sky light from the same cubemap;

• centres and sizes the dome on your landscape (or on your scene), with its ground under the terrain.

Physically based values. The kit uses real-world values:

• Sun: 100 000 lux at noon, 20 000 lux at sunset.

• Moon: a bluish 0.25 lux full moon.

• Sky: luminance in cd/m².

• Exposure: set in EV100, like a photographer would.

• Shadows: real sun and moon disc sizes (0.53 degrees), for crisp shadows.

• Light shafts: occlusion is on, with god rays at sunset.

Ready-made looks: clear day, golden sunset, dusk (blue hour), moonrise, moonlit night, and a rainy "film noir" night with dense volumetric fog.

Safe on existing levels. The kit lists your current base lighting (sun, sky light, atmosphere, fog, skybox, Ultra Dynamic Sky…) and lets you delete it, hide it or cancel. Point, spot and rect lights are never touched, and everything can be undone.

Everything is tidy. All actors go in a "Kit_Lighting" folder and can be edited like any other actor.

Also included

• A "physical units" option (real lux values, or easier numbers that give the same image).

• A cinematic volumetric fog option for flicker-free renders, saved with the level and used by Movie Render Queue.

• Python and Blueprint functions for every action.

• Five 4K sky-only HDRIs from Poly Haven (CC0).

Technical information

• Features:

  • one-click HDRI lighting (Day, Sunset, Night);

  • one-click Sky Atmosphere and volumetric cloud lighting (Day, Sunset, Night);

  • 6 ready-made looks;

  • use your own HDRI (automatic sun detection, brightness calibration, linked sky light);

  • automatic dome fitting to the landscape or scene;

  • physically based intensities and exposure;

  • replaces or hides existing base lighting, with confirmation;

  • optional cinematic volumetric fog;

  • Python and Blueprint API.

• Code modules:

  • HDRILightKit (Editor);

  • HDRILightKitRuntime (Runtime: the cinematic fog settings actor).

• Number of Blueprints: 0

• Number of C++ classes: 3 (HDRILightKitLibrary, AHDRILightKitFogSettings, editor module)

• Network replicated: No

• Supported development platforms: Windows

• Supported target build platforms: Win64 (the editor tool sets up actors and settings that work on any platform)

• Supported engine versions: 5.6, 5.7, 5.8

• Dependencies: HDRI Backdrop (Epic's built-in plugin, enabled automatically)

• Documentation: https://xrforges.square-bobcat.workers.dev/docs/kit-lighting/

• Example project: not needed: it works in any level.

• Important notes:

  • The kit is an editor tool.

  • The lighting it creates is made of standard engine actors, so it ships in packaged games without the plugin's editor module.

  • Sky HDRIs by Poly Haven (CC0).