Lighting and LOD Pipeline

Purpose

Define lighting policy, light budgets, LOD chains, and culling rules so 3D scenes look intentional and hit frame budgets on the weakest target.

Use When

• 3D scenes need a lighting approach and nothing is decided beyond defaults
• frame cost traces to lights, shadows, or geometry density at distance
• environments grow and need LODs, culling, and draw-distance policy

Inputs

• art direction for mood, time-of-day needs, and dynamism (static vs day cycle)
• target platforms and their lighting capabilities (baking, shadow budgets)
• scene inventory: interiors/exteriors, scale, density
• frame budget allocation for lighting and geometry

Process

1. decide the lighting policy explicitly: what is baked (or faked with blob shadows/light textures), what is dynamic, and which single light owns real-time shadows in a typical scene
2. budget lights per scene category: dynamic light count, shadow-casting count, and shadow resolution against the weakest target
3. define the ambient/indirect strategy (baked GI, probes, flat ambient plus tuned materials) consistent with the art direction
4. define LOD chains per asset category: reduction targets per level, switch distances tied to on-screen size, and whether the last level is an impostor or culled
5. set culling and draw-distance policy: occlusion strategy for interiors, distance culling tiers for props and detail layers
6. validate on target: light/shadow cost and LOD transitions measured on the weakest device, with popping checked at gameplay camera speeds

Outputs

• lighting policy sheet (baked/dynamic split, shadow ownership, ambient strategy)
• per-scene light and shadow budgets
• LOD chain conventions per asset category with switch-distance rules
• culling/draw-distance policy and the on-target validation checklist

Quality Bar

• every scene states which lights are dynamic and which cast shadows — defaults are decisions, not accidents
• lighting cost is measured within its frame-budget allocation on the weakest target
• LOD switches are not visible at normal gameplay camera distance and speed
• distant or occluded content is demonstrably culled, not just unlit

Common Failure Modes

• every light dynamic and shadow-casting because that was the default when it was placed
• LODs authored once at arbitrary reductions and never tuned to on-screen size, popping constantly
• ambient handled by cranking material emissive or fog until baked and dynamic objects no longer match
• interiors paying for the whole exterior because no occlusion or portal strategy was decided

Related Agents

• technical-artist
• level-designer
• performance-reviewer

Related Commands

• art-3d-pass
• perf-budget
• level-beat

Related Skills

• materials-shading-pipeline
• 3d-asset-pipeline
• vfx-pipeline

Notes

• Keep this skill aligned with the relevant rules layer and current project documentation.
• If engine-specific constraints materially change the workflow, hand off to the matching engine skill or engine-specific reviewer.
• Boundary: this skill owns lighting/LOD policy for content; engine-specific render pipeline settings (e.g. URP/HDRP configuration) belong to the engine layer.