Lighting and rendering in Unreal Engine 5.8

Version 0.1 (2026-09-24), part of Unreal Engine Expert Skills v0.1.

Expert lighting in Unreal is a calibrated camera, physical light values, and a renderer that sees the same scene you do; everything else is art direction layered on top and listed as such. Each step is proved with a representation view and a number before the lit image is trusted; noise is fixed in the system that owns it.

REQUIRED BACKGROUND: unreal-expert (channels, review loop, 5.8 traps).

Status (2026-09-24): scripts/ue_light.py is not yet run in Unreal; 200 pure, 65 editor-layer and 20 procedure checks pass offline against a fake unreal. First editor run: tests/code/unreal-lighting-rendering/job_00_probe_lighting.py.

Stance (the expert delta)