UDK- Lighting

   I have used UDK previously but all that was required on this occasion was to get a working model and its relevant textures imported correctly. Therefore I have not had a huge amount of practice working with other features such as lighting. I have been looking at a useful website (worldofleveldesign.com) particularly this page: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/udk/udk-how-add-lights-dominant-directional-light-point-light.php  which goes over the basic priniciples of lighting in UDK with a video guide to help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF_xnGo8azU I will use this as a guide to prepare myself ready for BA8.
   The guide starts off by pointing out two major types of lighting commonly used. Point lighting and Dominant Directional lighting. The images below show the latter being set up for a scene.
 

     The guide then states that dominant directional lighting is generally used to depict sunlight in an environment, whereas point lights are used for light sources in interiors. As my 3D scene is a completely internal environment I guess this means that point lighting will be of greater use to me.

   Point lighting is added by right clicking and selecting the options pictured below:


   This will then add a point light to the scene. The important thing to remember is that I must consider the source of every light in the scene. Having light floating around for no reason will do nothing to make my environment look authentic. On this note I can also change the details of the lighting such as colour, intensity, diffuse rate etc. to make it as appropriate for the light source as possible.



   The guide also details the possibility to adjust the colour of shadows in a scene within the world properties. This is also essential to making the scene look realistic. Colour theory dictates that the lighting of the scene will cast shadows on the other side of the colour wheel. Warm casts cold shadows and vice versa. The picture below demonstrates a correct attempt at this.



   After setting up lighting it is possible to play test the environment to see how this lighting would look in game.


 
   This guide will help me when it comes to setting up my scene in UDK, I now feel much more confident about the idea of lighting my environment.