3
$\begingroup$

I'm currently working on a project with Unity 3D, and my plan is to design everything with Blender. But I didn't know until today that Cycles renderer is meant for animations and HD images.

Can I use Cycles for a game in Unity as well?

I've heard about baking, but I don't know how it works, other than creating a UV image with light impact to the mesh of an object. But would this mean that moving an object around the scene will make it look like the light is till glued to the object?

This doesn't sound that good if objects in a game are supposed to move around.

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
5
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ related: blender.stackexchange.com/questions/14416/what-does-baking-mean and blender.stackexchange.com/questions/36947/… and blender.stackexchange.com/questions/41267/… $\endgroup$
    – user1853
    Commented Nov 21, 2015 at 15:07
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ You'll have to bake the cycles materials. Ray tracing is way too computationally intensive to perform on the fly. $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Commented Nov 21, 2015 at 15:20
  • $\begingroup$ But won't baking the materials result in static shadows? If I want to move objects around the shadows will still stay in place on the object. $\endgroup$
    – Corbis
    Commented Nov 21, 2015 at 17:23
  • $\begingroup$ Typically you do not bake dynamic lights as they add their own shading. You back shading that does not change or in a way that it is not noticeable if it would. Games are illusion. You are allowed to use tricks to let the audience think they are seeing real things. When you combine backed static lights with a few dynamic shading you can get impressive amazing results (with the according artistic skills). $\endgroup$
    – Monster
    Commented Nov 23, 2015 at 6:25
  • $\begingroup$ I see, I didn't know there were other kinds of baking, but I'll look into the ones I need. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Corbis
    Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 15:45

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2
$\begingroup$

Yes and no:

see this for "what is baking"

and this for "how to bake in cycles"

I say "yes and no" because no, you cannot use a complicated raytracing render engine realtime in a game (unless you have like, some sort of super computer :D) But yes cycles can improve your games visuals and even make them appear like they were rendered in cycles if you do it right.

Also yes the light will look "glued" to the object, but no, with specular maps and only baking a diffuse pass it does not have to be, and can be 100% dynamic.

Since I know next to nothing about Unity (game engine or otherwise), we will discuss this in terms of blender.

First of all, you want to only bake certain passes for a game texture.

I only use "Diffuse Direct" and "Ambient Occlusion" you can change the pass in the little box "Bake type"

enter image description here This will ensure that no reflections/lights will be baked into your object, especially if you only use Ambient occlusion

If you want to get really fancy, you can bake out or paint a specular map, which will make your object only reflective on certain parts, and usually makes games look better. :D

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Okay, I get it now. I never knew that there were other kinds of baking. Yeah, unity and blender firs well together, but I don't really expect people here to know anything about it, but I think I understand. Thaks you! $\endgroup$
    – Corbis
    Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 15:48

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .