Lightbox. Does a large number of lights tied to Lightboxes in the location reduce performance?

[orangedeal]

When I decided to replace light sources in all internal locations, I quickly discovered that the best ones are those that cast shadows, but only because they do not shine through at the junctions of textures (objects). However, with a large number of them, this can heavily load the system and lead to a drop in FPS. Therefore, I had to use them to a limited extent, and on external locations I decided not to use them at all.

I've seen a lot of Lightboxes in all locations, I couldn't understand exactly what they were created for, but today I finally understood how they work - like an invisible wall of ordinary light sources that are attached to them. I don't understand why I didn't notice this before.

If a complex location has a large number of simple light sources with many Lightboxes, can this affect performance? I see no reason why, but what if? I really don't want to redo everything later. Also - are there round lightboxes? I understand that I already want too much, but what if? Or oval. These lightboxes change the situation radically - now there are no light sources passing through corners and joints...

Thank you!

[greekrage]

I dont see how something that limits the radius of a light source and effects fewer objects would make performance worse.

I use them all the time inside buildings to stop light from "leaking" Through walls and floors into other rooms etc..

Edited October 29, 2022 by greekrage

[84Cronos]

Lightboxes can afaik affect performance. Think about it this way: Every interaction between an object and a light requires computation time (calculating if the object is within range, which parts are supposed to be lit and how strongly, shadows, etc.). Hence, limiting the range of a light and therefore reducing the number of objects it can interact with helps with performance (I guess the performance loss of the lightboxes themselves needing computation time is negligible in comparison to the performance gain). They're also necessary because lights might "stack ontop of each other" or mix their colors.

 

Secondly, lights that don't cast shadows, usually indicated by an NS suffix in their name, are obviously the most performance friendly way to light a scene but they're also necessary to achieve more realistic lighting, since lights in the real world bounce off of surfaces almost infinitely - which the shadow casting lights in Fallout 4 don't do without any additional ray tracing or ray tracing-esque technology. It is therefore necessary to combine shadow casting lights and NS lights to simulate the light bouncing off surfaces. One would do that the following way:

 

1. Set up one or a couple more shadow casting lights, depending on how many resources you have to spare.

2. Add some NS lights of the same type and turn down the FOV to your liking (either by adjusting the value in the reference window under the light data tab or by selecting the light and using the FOV manipulation hotkey plus moving your mouse up and down). Increase the range of the light to your liking as well to get the best result(select the light and press S plus moving your mouse up and down).

3. Add some NS lights with unchanged FOV to hightlight certain spots.

 

I would further suggest to put all of your lights and their respective light boxes on their own layers to be able to hide them easily when needed. Another option would be to use the Show/Hide function of the CK.

Edited October 29, 2022 by 84Cronos