Light and render a scene

Engine defaults give a flat, dark image; change them deliberately. Tune against inspected screenshots, one class of value at a time.

Defaults to change

• scene.ambientLight is black, so unlit sides render pure black. Light ambient and reflections from an environment atlas or skybox, or set an ambient colour.
• Cameras default to TONEMAP_LINEAR. Choose TONEMAP_NEUTRAL, TONEMAP_ACES2, or TONEMAP_FILMIC (on cameraFrame.rendering.toneMapping when using CameraFrame), set exposure, then balance light intensities to it.
• Shadows are off. Enable castShadows on the key light. Directional shadowDistance is 40 m, so use cascades for large scenes, and SHADOWUPDATE_THISFRAME for static shadows. Size resolution to the framed subject.
• Lights shine along local -Y (apply-conventions).

Use what ships

• CameraFrame handles tone mapping, bloom, SSAO, DOF, vignette, and grading. Call update() after changes and destroy it with the app. Keep bloom intensity within the documented 0 to 0.1.
• scene.sky.type (SKYTYPE_DOME, SKYTYPE_BOX, SKYTYPE_INFINITE) grounds an environment sky.
• The ProceduralSky script owns a linked sun light: set the light's base intensity, then tune elevation and azimuth on the sky, not the light.
• The ShadowCatcher script grounds subjects that have no lit floor.
• Clustered lighting is on by default, so many point and spot lights are cheap.
• Bake static lights with bake-lighting; stylize shading with override-shader-chunks.

Find each integration's example with find-examples.

Warning signs

• Albedo washing toward white: reduce exposure, sky, and light intensity before darkening materials.
• Large areas clipped white or crushed black: rebalance exposure and lights before adding post.
• A fog colour that differs from the sky horizon breaks the horizon line.