Lighting Scenario Auditor

Lighting Scenario Auditor

Module: Design · Category: LevelDesign · Tool ID: LightingScenarioAuditor

Audits every light in the active level. Groups counts by type (Directional / Point / Spot / Rect / Sky) and mobility (Static / Stationary / Movable). Flags excessive movable lights against a configurable budget, missing essentials (no Skylight, no Directional), shadow-caster count, and unusual attenuation radii. Color temperature is shown when used.

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When to use it

• Performance pass — finding levels with too many movable lights or shadow casters
• Pre-cook validation — confirming a Skylight + Directional Light combination is set up
• Inheriting a level — getting a one-glance view of what’s lighting the scene
• Reporting lighting budgets to the team

When not to use it

• Don’t use this for runtime lighting tuning — it’s an editor-side audit

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Opening the tool

1. Open the EQLabs Hub and search for Lighting (or browse to Design → LevelDesign)
2. Click the tool card
3. Make sure the level is loaded
4. Click Audit

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Interface tour

Section	What it does	Default
Audit button	Walks every light actor in the level
Movable Light Budget	Threshold above which the audit flags a warning	8
Export CSV	Saves the audit as CSV
Summary block	Total / movable / shadow-casters / issue count
Type Summaries list	Per-type row: type, static / stationary / movable / total
Lights list	Per-light row: name, type, mobility, intensity, attenuation radius, color temperature, shadow flag, issues

Single-click pings the actor in the level outliner.

What gets flagged

• Movable light count > Budget
• More than 4 stationary lights overlapping (UE’s hard limit)
• No Skylight in level
• No Directional Light in level
• Shadow casters above a heuristic threshold
• Suspicious attenuation radii (very large)

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Workflow

1. Load the level
2. Set Movable Light Budget to your project’s standard (8 is conservative; 16+ for high-end)
3. Click Audit
4. Walk the issues column for actionable fixes
5. Optionally Export CSV

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Settings reference

Field	What it does	Default
Movable Light Budget	Threshold for movable light count	8

Settings file: [Project]/Saved/EQLabs/Settings/LightingScenarioAuditor.json

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Output

• In-panel summary + lights list
• CSV export
• No edits — read-only audit

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Tips & gotchas

• The 4-stationary-overlap limit is a UE hard constraint — beyond 4, lights fall back to dynamic. The auditor flags this before it becomes a runtime cost
• Movable light budgets are platform-dependent — desktops can handle dozens; mobile chokes around 4-8
• Single-click selects in outliner

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Related tools

• Post-Process Volume Inspector — for PP volume side of the lighting setup
• Level Analysis Suite — broader level metrics

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