How to Change Lighting in Unreal Engine

This guide walks you through every step of changing lighting in Unreal Engine, from basic setups to advanced cinematic effects. Whether you’re building a game, architectural visualization, or a virtual experience, you’ll learn how to use dynamic, static, and real-time lighting tools effectively.

Key Takeaways

• Understand lighting types: Learn the difference between static, stationary, and movable lights and when to use each for optimal performance and visual quality.
• Master the Lighting toolbar: Use Unreal Engine’s intuitive lighting tools to place, adjust, and fine-tune lights with precision.
• Leverage Lumen for real-time global illumination: Take advantage of Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen system for realistic, dynamic lighting without precomputation.
• Optimize with Lightmass settings: Configure Lightmass for high-quality baked lighting in static scenes to reduce runtime overhead.
• Enhance mood with post-processing: Combine lighting with post-process volumes to create depth, contrast, and cinematic atmosphere.
• Troubleshoot common lighting issues: Fix problems like light leaks, overexposure, and performance drops using built-in debugging tools.
• Use lighting for storytelling: Apply lighting techniques to guide player attention, convey emotion, and enhance narrative impact.

How to Change Lighting in Unreal Engine

Lighting is one of the most powerful tools in Unreal Engine. It shapes how players experience your world—whether it’s a dark, moody forest or a bright, futuristic city. In 2026, Unreal Engine continues to evolve, offering even more intuitive and powerful lighting systems. This guide will show you exactly how to change lighting in Unreal Engine, from beginner-friendly adjustments to advanced cinematic setups.

By the end of this guide, you’ll know how to place lights, adjust their properties, use real-time global illumination with Lumen, bake static lighting with Lightmass, and enhance your scenes with post-processing. Whether you’re building a game, a virtual tour, or a cinematic sequence, mastering lighting will take your project to the next level.

Understanding Lighting Types in Unreal Engine

Before you start changing lighting, it’s important to understand the three main types of lights in Unreal Engine: Static, Stationary, and Movable. Each has its own use case and performance impact.

Static Lights

Static lights are baked into the scene during the lighting build process. They don’t change at runtime, which makes them very efficient. Use them for environments where lighting doesn’t need to change—like a museum exhibit or a pre-rendered architectural walkthrough.

Because they’re baked, static lights offer high visual quality with low performance cost. However, they can’t react to moving objects or changes in the scene. To use static lighting, set your light’s Mobility to “Static” in the Details panel.

Stationary Lights

Stationary lights are a middle ground. They have baked shadows and indirect lighting, but their direct lighting can change at runtime. This means you can adjust their intensity, color, or even turn them on and off during gameplay.

Stationary lights are great for scenes where some lighting needs to be dynamic—like a flickering neon sign or a lamp that turns on when a player approaches. They offer a good balance between performance and flexibility.

Movable Lights

Movable lights are fully dynamic. They can move, change color, intensity, and direction in real time. These are ideal for cinematic sequences, games with moving light sources (like flashlights or explosions), or interactive environments.

However, movable lights are more performance-intensive. Use them sparingly, especially on lower-end hardware. In Unreal Engine 5, Lumen helps reduce the performance cost by handling global illumination dynamically.

Setting Up Your First Light

Now that you know the types of lights, let’s place your first one.

Step 1: Open Your Level

Launch Unreal Engine and open your project. Navigate to the level where you want to add or change lighting.

Step 2: Access the Place Actors Panel

In the top-left corner, click the “Place Actors” tab (or press Shift+1). This opens a panel with all the objects you can add to your scene.

Step 3: Search for a Light

In the search bar, type “light.” You’ll see several options: Directional Light, Point Light, Spot Light, and Rect Light. Each serves a different purpose.

• Directional Light: Simulates sunlight. It casts parallel rays across the entire scene. Perfect for outdoor environments.
• Point Light: Emits light in all directions from a single point. Great for lamps or light bulbs.
• Spot Light: Projects light in a cone shape. Ideal for flashlights, stage lights, or headlights.
• Rect Light: Emits light from a rectangular surface. Useful for soft, even lighting like LED panels or windows.

Step 4: Drag and Drop the Light

Click and drag your chosen light into the viewport. Position it where you want it. For example, place a Directional Light high above your scene to simulate the sun.

Step 5: Adjust Light Properties

With the light selected, open the Details panel (usually on the right). Here, you can change:

• Intensity: How bright the light is. Measured in lumens for Point and Spot Lights, or lux for Directional Lights.
• Light Color: Use the color picker to change the hue. Warm white (orange-yellow) feels cozy; cool white (blue) feels clinical or futuristic.
• Mobility: Set to Static, Stationary, or Movable based on your needs.
• Cast Shadows: Toggle this on or off. Shadows add depth but can impact performance.

Using Lumen for Real-Time Global Illumination

Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen system is a game-changer. It provides real-time global illumination, meaning light bounces naturally off surfaces without needing to bake lighting.

How Lumen Works

Lumen uses software ray tracing andSigned Distance Fields (SDFs) to calculate how light travels through your scene. It reacts instantly to changes—like moving objects or turning lights on and off.

This means you can use Movable lights and still get realistic indirect lighting. No more waiting hours for a lighting build!

Enabling Lumen

Lumen is enabled by default in new Unreal Engine 5 projects. To check:

• Go to Edit > Project Settings > Rendering.
• Under Global Illumination, make sure “Lumen Global Illumination” is set to “Enabled.”
• Also enable “Lumen Reflections” for realistic surface reflections.

Tips for Using Lumen

• Use high-quality geometry: Lumen works best with detailed meshes. Avoid overly simple or non-manifold geometry.
• Adjust Lumen settings: In the Post Process Volume, you can tweak Lumen quality, ray count, and resolution.
• Monitor performance: Lumen can be demanding. Use the “Stat Unit” command in the console (press ~) to check GPU and CPU usage.

Baking Static Lighting with Lightmass

For scenes where performance is critical—like mobile games or large architectural visualizations—you may want to bake static lighting using Lightmass.

What Is Lightmass?

Lightmass is Unreal Engine’s lighting solver. It calculates how light bounces around your scene and saves that information into lightmaps—textures that store lighting data.

Baked lighting looks great and runs efficiently, but it can’t change at runtime.

Preparing for Lightmass

Before baking:

• Set all lights to Static mobility.
• Ensure your meshes have proper UVs for lightmaps. Go to the mesh’s Details panel and check “Generate Lightmap UVs.”
• Use the Build > Build Lighting Only option to bake only lighting (faster than building everything).

Adjusting Lightmass Settings

To fine-tune quality and performance:

• Go to Window > World Settings.
• Expand the Lightmass section.
• Adjust settings like:
  • Static Lighting Level Scale: Lower values = higher quality (but longer bake times).
  • Num Indirect Lighting Bounces: More bounces = more realistic light diffusion.
  • Indirect Lighting Quality: Higher values improve accuracy.

Baking the Lighting

Once everything is set:

• Click Build > Build Lighting in the main toolbar.
• Wait for the process to complete. This can take minutes or hours, depending on scene complexity.
• Review the results. Look for artifacts like light leaks or dark spots.

Enhancing Lighting with Post-Process Volumes

Lighting doesn’t stop at placing lights. To create a cinematic look, use post-process effects.

Adding a Post-Process Volume

• In the Place Actors panel, search for “Post Process Volume.”
• Drag it into your scene.
• Resize it to cover the area you want to affect (or check “Unbound” to apply it globally).

Key Post-Process Settings

• Exposure: Controls overall brightness. Use “Auto Exposure” for dynamic adjustment, or set manually for consistency.
• Bloom: Adds a glow around bright areas. Great for simulating light scatter.
• Color Grading: Adjusts the overall tone. Use LUTs (Look-Up Tables) for film-like color correction.
• Vignette: Darkens the edges of the screen to draw focus to the center.
• Depth of Field: Blurs distant or close objects to simulate camera focus.

Example: Creating a Moody Night Scene

Imagine a nighttime city scene. Here’s how to enhance it:

• Use a Directional Light with low intensity and a cool blue color to simulate moonlight.
• Add Point Lights under street lamps with warm orange tones.
• In the Post-Process Volume, increase Bloom slightly and lower Exposure for a darker mood.
• Enable Filmic Tone Mapping for more cinematic contrast.

Troubleshooting Common Lighting Issues

Even with the best tools, lighting problems can happen. Here’s how to fix the most common ones.

Light Leaks

Light leaks occur when light passes through gaps in geometry. To fix:

• Check for gaps between walls, floors, or props.
• Use the Show > Lighting Only view mode to spot leaks.
• Seal gaps with blocking geometry or adjust lightmap resolution.

Overexposed or Washed-Out Scenes

If your scene is too bright:

• Lower light Intensity values.
• Enable Auto Exposure and adjust min/max limits.
• Use a Post-Process Volume to reduce exposure manually.

Dark or Flat Lighting

If your scene lacks depth:

• Add more light sources or increase intensity.
• Use Fill Lights (soft, low-intensity lights) to reduce harsh shadows.
• Enable Lumen or increase Lightmass bounce counts.

Performance Drops

If your frame rate drops:

• Reduce the number of Movable lights.
• Switch some lights to Stationary or Static.
• Lower Lumen quality settings or disable it on lower-end devices.
• Optimize lightmap resolutions—higher values use more memory.

Advanced Lighting Techniques

Once you’re comfortable with the basics, try these advanced methods.

Using IES Profiles

IES (Illuminating Engineering Society) profiles simulate real-world light fixtures. They control how light spreads.

• In the light’s Details panel, go to IES Texture.
• Load an IES file (available online or from lighting manufacturers).
• The light will now cast realistic patterns, like a streetlight or spotlight.

Light Functions

Light Functions let you modulate a light’s intensity over time or space.

• Create a Material with a time-based function (like a sine wave).
• Assign it to the light’s Light Function Material.
• The light will flicker, pulse, or change color dynamically.

Sky Atmosphere and Exponential Height Fog

For outdoor scenes, combine lighting with atmospheric effects.

• Add a Sky Atmosphere actor for realistic sky color and sun scattering.
• Use Exponential Height Fog to add depth and haze.
• Adjust fog density and color to match your lighting mood.

Lighting for Storytelling and Gameplay

Lighting isn’t just about looks—it’s a storytelling tool.

Guiding the Player

Use light to draw attention. Bright areas attract the eye, while dark areas feel mysterious or dangerous.

• Place a Spot Light on a key object (like a treasure chest or door).
• Use Light Shafts (via post-process) to highlight paths.
• Create contrast between lit and unlit zones to guide movement.

Conveying Emotion

Lighting sets the mood.

• Warm, soft light: Safe, cozy, welcoming.
• Cold, harsh light: Tense, clinical, dangerous.
• Low light with shadows: Mysterious, suspenseful.
• Bright, even light: Open, honest, peaceful.

Dynamic Lighting for Interactivity

Make lighting respond to player actions.

• Use Blueprints to turn lights on/off when a player enters a zone.
• Trigger light color changes during events (like a alarm flashing red).
• Simulate day/night cycles with a rotating Directional Light and time-based intensity.

Conclusion

Changing lighting in Unreal Engine is both an art and a science. In 2026, with tools like Lumen, Lightmass, and advanced post-processing, you have more control than ever. Whether you’re building a game, a virtual experience, or a cinematic sequence, lighting can make or break the immersion.

Start simple: place a light, adjust its color and intensity, and see how it changes the scene. Then, experiment with mobility types, baking, and post-effects. Use Lumen for real-time realism or Lightmass for optimized performance. And don’t forget—lighting tells a story. Use it to guide, surprise, and move your audience.

With practice, you’ll go from basic setups to professional-grade lighting that brings your worlds to life.