GIProbe

Inherits: VisualInstance < Spatial < Node < Object

Real-time global illumination (GI) probe.

Description

GIProbes are used to provide high-quality real-time indirect light to scenes. They precompute the effect of objects that emit light and the effect of static geometry to simulate the behavior of complex light in real-time. GIProbes need to be baked before using, however, once baked, dynamic objects will receive light from them. Further, lights can be fully dynamic or baked.

Having GIProbes in a scene can be expensive, the quality of the probe can be turned down in exchange for better performance in the ProjectSettings using ProjectSettings.rendering/quality/voxel_cone_tracing/high_quality.

Tutorials

• GI Probes

Properties

float	bias	1.5
bool	compress	false
GIProbeData	data
int	dynamic_range	4
float	energy	1.0
Vector3	extents	Vector3( 10, 10, 10 )
bool	interior	false
float	normal_bias	0.0
float	propagation	0.7
Subdiv	subdiv	1

Methods

void	bake ( Node from_node=null, bool create_visual_debug=false )
void	debug_bake ( )

Enumerations

enum Subdiv:

• SUBDIV_64 = 0 --- Use 64 subdivisions. This is the lowest quality setting, but the fastest. Use it if you can, but especially use it on lower-end hardware.
• SUBDIV_128 = 1 --- Use 128 subdivisions. This is the default quality setting.
• SUBDIV_256 = 2 --- Use 256 subdivisions.
• SUBDIV_512 = 3 --- Use 512 subdivisions. This is the highest quality setting, but the slowest. On lower-end hardware this could cause the GPU to stall.
• SUBDIV_MAX = 4 --- Represents the size of the Subdiv enum.

Property Descriptions

float bias

Default	1.5
Setter	set_bias(value)
Getter	get_bias()

Offsets the lookup of the light contribution from the GIProbe. This can be used to avoid self-shadowing, but may introduce light leaking at higher values. This and normal_bias should be played around with to minimize self-shadowing and light leaking.

Note: bias should usually be above 1.0 as that is the size of the voxels.

bool compress

Default	false
Setter	set_compress(value)
Getter	is_compressed()

If true, the data for this GIProbe will be compressed. Compression saves space, but results in far worse visual quality.

GIProbeData data

Setter	set_probe_data(value)
Getter	get_probe_data()

The GIProbeData resource that holds the data for this GIProbe.

int dynamic_range

Default	4
Setter	set_dynamic_range(value)
Getter	get_dynamic_range()

The maximum brightness that the GIProbe will recognize. Brightness will be scaled within this range.

float energy

Default	1.0
Setter	set_energy(value)
Getter	get_energy()

Energy multiplier. Makes the lighting contribution from the GIProbe brighter.

Vector3 extents

Default	Vector3( 10, 10, 10 )
Setter	set_extents(value)
Getter	get_extents()

The size of the area covered by the GIProbe. If you make the extents larger without increasing the subdivisions with subdiv, the size of each cell will increase and result in lower detailed lighting.

bool interior

Default	false
Setter	set_interior(value)
Getter	is_interior()

If true, ignores the sky contribution when calculating lighting.

float normal_bias

Default	0.0
Setter	set_normal_bias(value)
Getter	get_normal_bias()

Offsets the lookup into the GIProbe based on the object's normal direction. Can be used to reduce some self-shadowing artifacts.

float propagation

Default	0.7
Setter	set_propagation(value)
Getter	get_propagation()

How much light propagates through the probe internally. A higher value allows light to spread further.

Subdiv subdiv

Default	1
Setter	set_subdiv(value)
Getter	get_subdiv()

Number of times to subdivide the grid that the GIProbe operates on. A higher number results in finer detail and thus higher visual quality, while lower numbers result in better performance.

Method Descriptions

void bake ( Node from_node=null, bool create_visual_debug=false )

Bakes the effect from all GeometryInstances marked with GeometryInstance.use_in_baked_light and Lights marked with either Light.BAKE_INDIRECT or Light.BAKE_ALL. If create_visual_debug is true, after baking the light, this will generate a MultiMesh that has a cube representing each solid cell with each cube colored to the cell's albedo color. This can be used to visualize the GIProbe's data and debug any issues that may be occurring.

void debug_bake ( )

Calls bake with create_visual_debug enabled.