FAQs

What is Enlighten?: Enlighten stands as the industry's most advanced dynamic lighting solutions, empowering you to craft and control global illumination in real-time.

How does Enlighten work?: Enlighten instantly updates global illumination as you move lights and modify materials. This seamless process is facilitated by Enlighten's precomputation of occlusion information for your world.

Why is global illumination important?: Global illumination introduces a level of realism that achieves cinematic-quality lighting—simply position a few light sources, and realistic indirect lighting is automatically simulated.

Why is dynamic lighting important?: Dynamic lighting empowers you to craft captivating gameplay experiences in unprecedented ways, providing players with complete control over lighting and enabling interactive and immersive scenarios. This includes dynamic features such as time of day changes, destructible environments, and portable light sources.

Which games use Enlighten?: Enlighten is used in RiME (Nintendo Switch™) and multiple AAA titles.

Which art styles are possible with Enlighten?: Enlighten employs a wide spectrum of visual styles, ranging from photorealism to cell-shading.

Does Enlighten support large worlds?: Yes, you have the flexibility to illuminate spaces of any size, including expansive open worlds with long draw distances.

Which platforms does Enlighten support?: See the bottom of the "Features" section for supported platforms.

What are the available software packages of Enlighten?: Enlighten is available as a stand-alone SDK or integrated into Unreal Engine 4 and 5.

How does using Enlighten enhance the workflow?: Enlighten provides continuous updates to global illumination in both the game environment and the editor. This instantaneous feedback allows you to illuminate a scene within seconds, eliminating the necessity for a time-consuming bake after each iteration.

Can I still use baked lighting?: Yes, the option to bake lighting, fully or partially, is available.

Where does Enlighten integrate into my rendering pipeline?: Enlighten seamlessly incorporates into your rendering pipeline by taking your game's direct lighting, static geometry, and material colors as inputs. It then outputs indirect lighting to textures that can be easily utilized with any renderer.

How much runtime overhead does Enlighten add?: Enlighten introduces minimal GPU time overhead. The update process seamlessly occurs on a dedicated background CPU thread, ensuring no impact on the overall framerate. The refreshing of indirect lighting takes place as frequently as allowed within the specified time budget. Notably, since it's not essential for indirect lighting to update every frame, this operation does not compromise the final quality of the rendering.

Does Enlighten support advanced material properties?: Yes. Enlighten goes beyond basic capabilities by simulating the intricate interplay of diffuse bounce, transmission, and emission of light—all of which can be precisely controlled through a range of material properties. Explore our gallery to witness these effects in action and witness the versatility Enlighten brings to your creative endeavors.

Does Enlighten support VR?: Yes. Enlighten seamlessly integrates with VR experiences as it operates asynchronously on the CPU. This makes it an ideal choice for VR applications, where the GPU often becomes the primary bottleneck.

Who can I contact or where can I learn out more about Enlighten?: For those interested in a free trial or seeking additional information about Enlighten, please click here to reach out to us. We are more than happy to address any questions you may have and provide the assistance you need.