Demystifying the Skylight [Unreal Engine 4 & 5]

This weeks tutorial concerns the Skylight actor. The Skylight in Unreal Engine 4 (4.26) is probably the weirdest light, and most misused and misunderstood light out there. This video serves to demystify the Sky Distance Threshold and how it's so important for lighting interiors, and lighting exteriors in Unreal Engine 4. This tutorial serves to help people understand the purpose of the skylight. How to use the skylight, and why you should be using it this way. Not only does this work with Raytracing / Raytraced GPU's but this also works well WITHOUT Raytracing. You can use HDRI / Cubemaps with the skylight in this video. Again, Raytracing is NOT an absolute must.
We also take a look at Mesh Distance Field Ambient Occlusion (also known as DFAO), and how drastically it can affect your scenes.
Let's dive in!

PS. This works the same way in Unreal Engine 5! Lumen just makes it even better :)

#unrealengine
#lighting
#skylight
#raytracing
#nvidia
#ue4

#tutorial
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This video is NOT sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links which means if you buy something I'll receive a small commission.
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Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:33 - Setup
11:22 - Distance Field Ambient Occlusion
13:10 - Donations and Thanks

---------Cameras and Gear Used To Film This Video -------
DISCLAIMER: This video/description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!

My Streaming / Recording Setup (How this Video was Recorded)

[WilliamFaucher]

Just a bit of info since we have a lot of newcomers here, this approach is mainly targeted towards cinematics use (as that is what this channel is about), where you don’t have multiple environments/biomes to light at once. Obviously if you’re making a game, you will need to take a different approach here in regards to a low sky distance threshold. In my mind that was obvious but I realize now that I should have specified this more clearly in the video.

[ArtVandelayInc]

Man, your videos are just essential to the community. We are so lucky to have you

[WilliamFaucher]

Hey folks! I'm aiming for a June 1st release/announcement for my Patreon page, stay tuned for more info coming soon!

[MRDDev]

Just for the tip of adding a chrome ball you deserve thousands of likes. It is amazing how something so little can make a big difference when lighting.

[octaviosilva]

Whenever William posts it makes me happy...

Because I know he is one of the only UE4 artist who can make hard topics easy to grasp 😀

[ZacDonald]

Small tip: If you do need realtime capture, that is the perfect time to use the lower hemisphere color feature. Most of the time, set it to the diffuse color of your landscape. You'll get that indirect lighting color from the grass, sand, or whatever ground your scene is using. If the environment is more varied, you might want to just use a medium or dark grey.

[boomshroomgoonmoon]

Probably the most clear and understandable tutorial I've seen on unreal lighting so far, thanks a lot !

[GoldenLaneStudio]

This was extremely helpful. Thanks for sharing this.
I just used random settings or recolored an hdr because it was so confusing.

[GDiK]

I learned a lot from your stream the other day about Skylight. Happy to see a standalone tutorial on this.

[bludbafMcgraf]

This has become my favorite learning resource...
I started realizing I dont really like the linear grind of busting out tutorials for hours. But catching something new on your channel daily keeps me progressing and learning, and keeps it fresh and fun...
Thanks for doing what you do bro

[septic]

Man, I don't know what it is, but your videos feel like they have so much value! Really appreciate your work style of teaching!

[adamplechaty]

Yes! Iam all for the interactivity livestreaming offers, but as a dad of a newborn and working full time, these short and info packed vids are just perfect. Thanks William, you rock!

[AlvinLeeVesper]

I've just started learning Unreal for Video Production purposes, and boy all your videos had helped me tremendously, all quality content, from the virtual camera settings to understanding the skylight actor, Thank you!! Looking forward to learn more about reflections from you!

[derekheisler]

Omg... I was working on a project where we were having issues with distance falloff of objects in the rear view mirror of the car. We had to come up with an overly complex camera to material projection to get it to have enough detail, when this could have been the solution all along... wow. Pumped to try it out. Brilliant video man.

[nikwalz]

This is an awsome explanation on how this is working. And it helped me finding a bug in my map where the sky light is not working.

[DaNiElMmM]

Using the skylight as an Hdri Is the most amazing thing youve could teach me, thanks 🥺😭❤️

[denismoxhet]

Once more, can we enjoy the fact that all of this was completely FREE ! Big respect !

[playproduction]

Woaaahhh maan, I've just discovered your channel and boom. Even the first video made a huge progress of my understanding of this particular light. I'll stay a while browsing. Thank you the effort!

[johncorbitt]

As usual, your tutorials are extremely helpful William. Great service to those of us trying to improve our Unreal skills

[bcgames]

Hey William, Hope all is well. Just wanted to comment on the presentation. Everything was very nice. The annotations, the intro video, and the smooth transitions were subtle and great. And I know those little things take a lot of time so I appreciate your work man!