3D lighting

So far, we have looked at the basics of the rendering process and how a 3D model is rendered. What we omitted in the first section, however, is how lighting plays into this. In order to get a sense of the importance of lights in a 3D scene, how about we go ahead and turn out the lights. Open up Unity to where we left off in the first section and follow along:

1. Select the Directional Light object in the Hierarchy window.
2. Disable the Light in the Inspector window by unchecking the box beside the object's name. This will turn off or disable the light. You will note that not all the lights go off, however. This is because we have an ambient or global light that is used to account for general light scattering.

3. You are now left with a dark object with no lights and shadows. Turn back on the Directional Light by clicking on the checkbox. Take a look at the properties of the Light in the Inspector window, as shown:

Directional Light properties in the Inspector window

4. Play with the Type, Color...