Lighting For Games UE5 Baked Lighting #001

Hello all.
This project is the result of a personal research, as to how high i can push the visual levels in lighting for real time content, while maintaining the best optimisation possible.
This of course means using as few lights as possible, and creating workaround solutions , where there is only one Stationary light (shadow casting) for the characters to have dynamic shadowing, while everything else is Static and fully baked.
My goals where :
A) To keep the Lighting Complexity only in the Blues
B) To apply Physicaly accurate light values for photorealism
C) To create a lighting solution where the player feels well intergated in the environment while in game, but also if needed , to be able to produce high quality cinematics.
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I usually start with the indirect lighting setup, then i go for direct lighting. After that, i setup my Dynamic shadow casting light and i set it to Stationary. Next i add the secondary direct lighting. At his point, all the lights are set to static, except the Dynamic shadow casting one, which is set to Stationary. I usually leave the Volumetrics last , because they can be really tricky to get them right, and can make or break your final result.
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Post Processing: I decided to go for manual exposure instead of automatic. I know its kind off, against the rules, but i wanted to create a more cinematic feel and experiment a little.
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Engine Setup in UE 5.71 : For the CPU baking process, i disabled Lumen, Raytracing and Substrate materials. I left the heavy GI calculations solely on Unreals classic lightbaker, which is powerful and stable. I dont trust the GPU Lightmass baker as it is still experimental and not ready for production yet.
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I feel there should be more public/free information on how to use CPU bake lighting, so i plan on creating a dedicated YouTube channel with detailed step by step tutorials.
This is why i used free assets for this project and you can download them here:
Project Scene : https://www.fab.com/listings/a0c7819e-a61d-4a19-8d3b-f0f5e584e6e0?tab=reviews
Project Hdri: https://polyhaven.com/a/rural_evening_road
Project IES lights: https://www.fab.com/listings/e0131df5-6fcd-42f4-86db-b406a3b4127d
Project Character: https://www.fab.com/listings/8e200050-3158-4762-b297-f785b5b1533d

If anyone wants to see more breakdowns, i post them on my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@LightingForGames

Thank you for watching!