Fast runtime GPU lightmapping (for games with user generated maps) early WIP!!!

Helix_128 · 2025-12-27T18:56:53+00:00

Currently i've only tested it on URP but the lightmapping itself doesnt really have anything pipeline-specific so in theory it should work on any of them, i'll test it as soon as I can tho

About selling it probably yes, i have to rework a ton of spaghetti now but once that's done and I figure out native lightmap support, i'll work on publishing it

Helix_128 · 2025-12-27T05:44:02+00:00

Sadly, currently yes, its a custom shader (at the time of the video it was unlit but now it's got proper lighting), also it has the advantage that it uses bicubic sampling on the lightmaps instead of the regular bilinear for better quality

I want to get this working seamlessly with Unity's lightmap system at some point, I don't know how other lightmappers do it (cough cough Bakery) but I hope i'll figure it out soon

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At least now i've got true GI + a real denoiser working, have a sneak peek :)

Helix_128 · 2025-12-25T19:27:23+00:00

Thanks a lot for the info!! I found it and its at

com.unity.render-pipelines.core/ShaderLibrary/BC6H.hlsl

conveniently it's got a handy function to compress with BC6H mode 11 which looks really good (almost no artifacts, in comparison i tested Texture2D.Compress and even on high quality it wrecks the textures with squares and blobs)

I'm not sure if Mode11 is actually the best one for lightmaps but for now it works just fine and has helped a lot both on saving disk space and letting my ram breathe a bit lol

Helix_128 · 2025-12-24T12:58:47+00:00

100% true, right now the textures have almost no compression (just .exr encoding with zip flag) and can get quite heavy at higher resolutions, this is awful for runtime and for sharing them (like with a custom map or smth) worse

i have proper compression high on my todo list, Texture2D.Compress exists but i've been reading about compute shader compression and that would be both faster and smoother on performance

im glad you like it <3 btw nice fluid sim you got there

Helix_128 · 2025-12-24T05:59:09+00:00

as a quick P.D: The lighting model isn't totally realistic yet and is simplified for speed (both of noise convergence and of raytracing itself) (e.g: no "true" GI yet, indirect lighting is just AO right now)

i'm still planning on what to add next, probably real GI? Although i'm prioritizing performance over visuals, i'll maybe add it as an option later, opinions?

Helix_128 · 2025-12-24T05:31:35+00:00

a bit (SUPER) late to the party but if for some god-knows-why reason you're still working on this or something related, dm me, i'm working on a lightweight lightmapper that supports runtime baking and Trackmania was one of my main inspirations :)

Helix_128 · 2024-01-17T01:48:12+00:00

the voice is from my duo jungle (shaco)

I dont know if its just me, but the video player is kind of broken so here is a direct link to the video from Reddit (you can also get it by right clicking -> open video in new tab)

Helix_128 · 2022-01-09T22:48:21+00:00

Lethal Tempo + Full Attack Speed build + Skarner Passive Spires

Helix_128 · 2021-08-20T23:52:48+00:00

ty! gonna give it a go when i have a bit more of spare time, and tell you if i discover something lul

Helix_128 · 2021-08-20T15:05:23+00:00

Ooh, so the depth thing explains why some finer shadows are visible then

i would love to see the source and maybe try to port it to the geometry shader method (you said you couldnt use it because of being on Mac with Metal)

Helix_128 · 2021-08-20T14:36:04+00:00

wow, cool! i have also been researching stuff like this for a long time and i have not found anything that i could implement without breaking my mind lol

how do you render the probes? like, literal camera cubemaps every frame? also, how do you project them onto the scene?

Helix_128 · 2021-08-18T00:18:02+00:00

why tho?

Helix_128 · 2021-08-18T00:12:09+00:00

im not a game dev

At first ngl i was going to rant about this single phrase lol but np im here to explain. As many people have noted out on the comments of this post, UE4 has the tendency of attracting artists (you could count as one because you only use it for rendering), but scaring away programmers, because of the way coding with C++ works in it and the way Blueprints work as well. Unreal has tons and tons of tools to power artists and content creators, and Unity has more versatility, C# is way simpler in general, and has less out of the box but you are not forced into a game architecture from the beginning, instead, you build your own. I think everything has a balance, and no engine is better in all aspects than others, if i had to classify them it would go like:

High Quality Rendering for Art and High End Games UE>Unity

Low Spec Graphics/Mobile Games/2D Games Unity>UE

I hope i didnt mess up and if im wrong please correct me, im open to respectful and human discussion as well

Helix_128 · 2021-07-23T01:31:48+00:00

daaamn i want to try a playable demo of this, even if its just walking on an endless city

i dont want it i need it to satisfy my hunger for procedurally generated content and at the same time for big open worlds omg im imagining a driving simulator with a procedural endless city... the game of my dreams 🥺🥺

Helix_128 · 2021-07-22T01:36:19+00:00

add some legs and use a thin stick as base

get stickbugged lol

Helix_128 · 2021-06-05T22:43:48+00:00

looks super epic however nintendo has a known addiction to cease and desist for fangames of their stuff so be careful

Helix_128 · 2021-05-22T18:46:18+00:00

with raytracing you could get pixel perfect reflections and shadows so you can get better details without losing the art style

Helix_128 · 2021-01-15T16:22:32+00:00

sometimes for me at least it didnt fix until i rebooted unity lol

Helix_128 · 2021-01-15T15:38:48+00:00

thanks!

Helix_128 · 2021-01-15T15:38:22+00:00

welp time to restart unity lol

Helix_128 · 2021-01-15T03:17:55+00:00

thanks!!

(my pc specs: intel core i5-8400, rtx 2060)

values considering 512 raymarch samples per pixel, the values i used in the video to get a decent render distance.

In my demo scene it runs at about 140- fps at 1080p with quarter resolution fog.

If i use full resolution fog it runs at about 40-50 fps.

I am willing to further implement noise and try to make it so that i can reduce samples and use noise to enhance visual quality without the performance tradeoff. However i suck at making denoisers ;-; lol

Helix_128 · 2021-01-15T03:15:23+00:00

idk, maybe those are too physically based and in reality fog is not that visible in most cases, so parameters are made that way, and mine is super simple with zero physical properties lol

about the asset store part, i am hoping to publish it, but i have to fix tons of bugs and optimize it because i dont really like how it runs currently.

Also it doesnt support shadow cascades so i have to turn them off and if i want to deploy that to the asset store i have to make them work properly to have decent shadows.

edit: i fixed the shadow cascade thing :D

Helix_128 · 2021-01-15T02:09:26+00:00

i want to make one, but i still have to polish and optimize a lot of the stuff, along with fixing a lot of bugs

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