Why is the default pixel light count so low?

Questions & Answers
1

I’m making a game that has 6 torches in a hallway that’s moderately long, the player has a torch, and in the next room there’s another torch. I’m thinking about adding other things to the game to break up the look of it being so orange but the default pixel light count for the highest graphic setting is like 4. Why is it 4? I upped it to 20 and saw no difference in performance so to me it begs the question, why is the default number so low?

Thanks!

(I also have a distance detection script where if the player is 30 meters away or something the light turns off so it’d never go above 20 in count but I’m still curious as to why that’s the default)

2

Why? Performance.

In forward rendering path, each pixel light that lights an object requires an extra pass. More passes = slower rendering time. So, only important lights are lit per-pixel, and unimportant lights are per-vertex. I don’t know why 4 has been chosen specifically, but assume it’s set as some reasonable default setting for most use-cases.