Unity Lighting and Visual Effects

Lighting Modes

Unity provides three light modes controlling how illumination is calculated.

Realtime Lights

• Calculate lighting every frame at runtime
• Allow dynamic changes to intensity, color, position
• Cast shadows up to Shadow Distance
• Contribute only direct lighting by default (no bounced light)
• Higher runtime cost, especially in complex scenes or low-end hardware
• Best for: dynamic objects, flickering effects, moving light sources