Windows 7 64-bit with 5.0.0b17.
Deferred rendering path.
All lights are set as Baked Only, though I see this with Mixed also.
No Realtime GI, though I see this with Realtime GI computed also.
Directional Specular GI mode, though I believe this issue exists for all modes.
The only difference between the two screen-shots below is whether lightmaps were baked. The more intensely lit version of the scene is using lightmaps. I would expect the rendering to be the same whether or not lightmaps have been baked, for Unity 4 this was the case as albeit with differences in lighting quality.
I have a suspicion this is a consequence of the Legacy Shaders not understanding how to apply lighting in the new lighting model. Makes sense as they are after all ‘legacy’ BUT it is a real pain to now have to go through and modify all the materials to use the Standard shader given that it isn’t a ‘drop in’ replacement.
I quite liked how the Legacy Shaders looked and would rather they work in the context of Unity 5’s new lighting system. Is this By Design for Unity 5?
The Directional Specular mode is quite expensive and requires the shader to understand how to interpret the data. The scene looks too bright as in this mode the first lightmap contains the incoming light intensity, whereas in other modes it has the diffuse response of the surface. The latter will be darker as it multiplies the lighting by NdotL.
This mode will be supported by surface shaders, the only requirement is for the shader to use a lighting model with the Lighting_GI function declared. The builtin lighting models will have this declared.
So the only case where it won’t work is a user-written surface shader with a custom lighting model without the Lighting_GI function. It will work with Directional and Non Directional mode though. It can also be upgraded by just implementing the Lighting_GI function.
What I described above will most likely be available in around 2 betas from now, as it’s a work in progress.
Now your best bet is to use the Standard shader with any of the directional modes or use your legacy shaders and use the Non Directional mode.
So if I read that correctly, before Unity 5 release the legacy shaders will be updated to support the Lighting_GI function and therefore the Enlighten light-map data. Correct?
What are the expected settings for a Unity 4 dual light-mapped scene when imported into Unity 5. Customers would expect I think to find parity in Unity 5, or better :), with regards render quality, capabilities and performance in their previously dual light-mapped scenes.
The closest you’ll get is by using realtime GI with realtime direct lighting. If you don’t change any lights, environment lighting and don’t trigger material updates via the API then the lightmaps and light probes won’t be updated, so behave as if they were baked.
That will give you the same behaviour as you had within the shadow distance in Dual Lightmaps.
Now, the area past shadow distance is tricky. In 4.x it was not ideal as it was missing bump and spec, so it could already have very different brightness than up close. With the Standard shader looking so differently based on the view direction, the difference was just even bigger.
We will have a solution to that early in 5.x, but sadly not in 5.0.
You can also try one of the baking modes and figure out what are you missing in them.
