Fewer lights vs. smaller/fewer textures?

Unity Engine
1

I’ve got a scene that is pretty typical for what I am doing: It has about 6 objects that vary in size from just under 1,000 poly’s to just under 4,000 polys. My scene has one moving light, and one fixed, directional light. I’m using 6 textures and six bump maps, one pair for each object, and I’ve baked AO in, but no other lighting because I’m “reusing” UV space.

My question is this: Am I better off keeping 2 lights in my scene and smaller/fewer textures, or, should I re-map the UV’s on to bigger textures (so I don’t re-use UV space) and bake in the lighting for the directional light? I will probably have to increase the size/number of textures another 25-50% in order to remove the directional light.

Is there a “general rule” to go by when making decisions such as these?

2

(Please Correct Me If I’m Wrong Here)
The way I understand it…

Per Pixel Lights are the only thing that really add up fast with lighting. A directional per vertex light is cheap.

If I recall correctly lights are valued by their alphabetical order then by verts vs pixel.

From:Cheap
Per Vertex
Directional
Point
Spot
Per Pixel
Directional
Point
Spot
To:Expensive

I’d go smaller textures and one or 2 lights. Ultimately it comes down to converting pixels to texels and the less pixel info the cheaper it is.

Cheers,

3

Howdy,

Maybe use smaller repeated ( where possible ) detail textures for each mesh, and a bigger lightmap texture for multiple or all meshes. Then use the 1 moving light only? Am I correct in assuming this could work in a leaner way?

Take a look at these examples from this thread: http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=7008 this is done with lightmapping in whichever 3D app ( I think ) and no lights in Unity as stated by the creator.

JW

4

Thanks VICTOM, that chart will be useful in helping me decide how to use lights.

Thanks Jaydubs, it was that thread that prompted me to reconsider how I’m doing things.