How to Create Golden Hour Sky in Unreal Engine

Lighting in Unreal Engine 5 might become confusing with Physically Based Lighting (PBL), and in this video, I will make it easier in a step by step tutorial to make your game ready lighting for your environments.

We will go over the complete lighting setup and explain each important step that will have a big influence on your lighting.

We will start with the fundamentals of Physically Based Lighting (PBL), the differences between the two terminologies, Luminance & Illuminance, and the different Lighting Intensity Units in Unreal Engine. Then, will start with removing all lighting actors from our scene, and create our Physically based sky box material that will be even polished later on, and we will learn how to use accurate physically based values for it at the start then art direct it. We will understand how to use Sky Light in Unreal Engine and how it works in different ways and fixing any issues related to sky atmoshpere or sky material.

Then, comes the most important part which is How to Setup Exposure, How to Setup Exposure Compensation Curves, How to Understand EV100, and the differences between Auto Exposure and Manual Exposure.

Then, How to Setup Contrast Ratio, How to Use Directional Light (Sun Light) with Physically Based Lighting. The Difference Between Soft Shadow and Hard Shadow. How to Tone Mapping and understand Tone Mapper and Local Exposure in Unreal Engine.

How to Use Exponential Height Fog in Unreal Engine. How to Use Volumetric Fog in Unreal Engine with Physically Based Lighting (PBL)

How to Create Sun Disc in Sky Material in Unreal. How make sky more realistic. How to Color Grading in UE5. Advanced Lumen settings and Post Process Effects. How to create Light Function with Fake Shadows and Gobo Light in Unreal to make a more realistic and cinematic lighting look.

Everything is created to make your lighting process better and easier. I cannot wait to share more with you in the upcoming weeks, stay tuned!

Don't miss any new updates and tips, and join our community: https://forms.gle/w8kiQWDXjAVJB6EUA

Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:23 - Physically Based Lighting
00:44 - Luminance vs Illuminance
03:28 - Scene Clean Up
05:39 - PBL Sky Material & Sky Light
09:58 - EV100 - Exposure Curve for Interiors & Exteriors
18:51 - Contrast Ratio
21:00 - PBL Directional Light (Sun Light)
21:59 - Hard Shadow vs Soft Shadow
22:16 - Tone Mapping & Local Exposure
25:52 - PBL Exponential & Volumetric Fog
28:07 - Sun Disc in Sky Material
30:36 - Color Grading in Post Process
32:17 - Final Exposure Settings
34:45 - Better Directional Light
34:53 - Fake Cloud Shadow Gobo Light Function
35:58 - Better Sky Light
37:18 - Better Post Process, Lumen Settings, Film Grain, Bloom
41:50 - Outro & Final Note


#unrealengine #physicallybasedlighting #pbl #realisticlighting #lighting #tips #ue5 #ue #epicgames #oldwest #northwood #cinematic #unrealengine5 #lumen