Day Cycle and LightMapping

Questions & Answers
1

Hi there,

I'm making a game with a day cycle (Like Zelda 64 Ocarina of Time) and my question is.

Making a realtime shadow consumes a lot computer process. Can I bake a few lightmaps and 'blend' according to the sun position? Like sunset, sunrise, midday? Or there is another way to do it better?

2

You could try a 'horizon map' & shader? Basically it's a texture that holds two values: what time the sun touches it and what time the sun leaves it. A shader can then interpret this and shade appropriately given the current time.

3

You could use Deferred Lighting. It supports one Directional Light with realtime shadows and lots of other lights without realtime shadows.

Take a look at the reference for quality and performance optimization:

Shadows in Unity and Directional Shadow Details.