CSE3541/5541 (Spring 2026) Lab #4

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CSE3541/5541 (Spring 2026)  Lab #4
Due Date: Sunday, March 29 by 11:59pm
Guidelines
• The grader will NOT overcome compiler or debugging errors for you.

• All make-ups for lab must be accompanied by a documented and verifiable excuse well before the deadline. Given the severity of the emergency please inform me as soon as possible.

• Lab submissions will NOT be accepted via email to me or the grader.
• Work on the lab on your own. No group work!

Objectives

Practice with various lighting models, light types, illumination parameters, materials and rendering pathways. Become familiar with how 3D tools, like Unity, use these.

Collaboration and Piazza

Please read the course policy on Academic Misconduct in the syllabus. You may discuss the lab with your classmates ONLY at a high level. You must formulate your own solution (all code must be authored by you alone) without any help from others or third party sources (e.g., the internet). Use of GenAI is completely prohibited.Do not post any part of your solution or spoilers on Piazza.

In your lab report (see below), you need to list with whom you have discussed the lab.

IMPORTANT: Your submission must state in your lab report that you have followed all course policies regarding academic misconduct, which are described in the syllabus. In order for your lab report to be graded, you must agree that you have not violated any course policy by copying and then pasting the following blurb into your lab report before the introduction:

My lab submission only contains work that I have completed solely on my own from scratch. I pledge that my solution is neither copied, derived, nor constructed in any way from third party sources, e.g. other persons, websites, generative AI, etc. I understand that if my submitted work is found to be in violation of any course policy that an incident report will be submitted to the Committee on Academic Misconduct (COAM).

Inclusion of this blurb in your lab report means that you agree to this statement and that it is true. If this blurb does not appear in your lab report in its entirety then your submission will not be graded and receive a zero. Submission of an incident report to COAM may possibly result in failing the course, being placed on academic probation, expelled from the University, etc.

Task 0 (Git)

Use a local Git repository (not Github) running only on your computer to develop your solution. Remember that Git is the NOT the same as Github (do NOT use Github). Write your solution INCREMENTALLY and use Git to maintain different versions up to your final solution for submission.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Depending on your machine, your bake times may be quite large. I emphasize for this lab that you should start early and implement your solution incrementally. For example, when baking make sure your solution can bake with one light source first. If your machine is older or has weak graphics hardware then you will need to allocate more time for yourself on this lab due to longer bake times.

Alternatively you could switch to a better machine.

I highly suggest you define sprints and work on this lab consistently rather than trying to accomplish it close to the deadline.

Tasks

1. We will use the following tutorial videos to help complete the steps in this lab (the assignment has additional steps in places): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-dl03Z0eHnrqqkHnJPk1Io1PISCUNmB

There will be overlap regarding material between these tutorials. Start with these tutorials before starting the lab and while you are working on it.

• Watch/study “7 Ways to Optimize your Unity Project with URP” to learn about URP, baked lighting, and light probes.
• Watch/study “Basics of Interior Lighting in Unity [URP] – Realtime Interior Lighting” to learn about adding lights and emissive materials
(don’t worry about reflections).
• Watch/study “Basics of Interior Lighting in Unity [URP] – Baked Interior Lighting” to learn about backed lighting.
• Watch/study “LIGHTING in Unity” to learn about setting up light and baking.

• Watch/study “REALTIME LIGHTING in Unity” to learn about settings, base/real-time lighting, shadows, light emitters (real-time light sources), and emissive materials.

• Watch/study “Unity: Light Probe Group” to learn about emissive objects, baking lightmaps, light probes

You can browse and refer to the rest of the videos in this play list to get further information on these topics. Use the title of the video and indexes (for those videos that are indexed) to help you learn more.

Additionally, read through the following Unity manual pages:
• Static Game Objects
https://docs.unity3d.com/2021.1/Documentation/Manual/StaticObjects.html
• Shaders/Built-in shaders/Standard Shader
https://docs.unity3d.com/2021.1/Documentation/Manual/shaderStandardShader.html
• Materials/Material Inspector reference
https://docs.unity3d.com/2021.1/Documentation/Manual/class-Material.html
• Materials/Using materials with C# scripts
2. Create a new URP 3D project in Unity2019.3 or higher. Create the folder structure as discussed for Lab1 (Scenes, Materials, Scripts, ...)

3. Create an interior scene similar to that shown below. This one is 6 planes for the floor, ceiling and 4 walls, and 3 cubes for the interior cutout. I used a wall thickness of 0.3 meters and the overall room size is 20x20 meters. Feel free to model your apartment or some closed area, we just want some dark areas and some light areas. Place all of these in an Empty GameObject named Room (make sure to reset its transform before moving objects into it).

4. For the Camera, set the clear flag to Color and set the color to black. If you don’t see a “Clear” flag then look for “Background” (see “Solid Color” under Background Type). You may find the settings in the Window->Rendering- >Lighting-Environment location.

5. In the Lighting/Environment, Disable the Skybox, set the Realtime Shadow and Ambient Colors to black.

6. Make sure your Lighting Settings are correct. In the "Scene" tab toggle on "Realtime Global Illumination" and "Baked Global Illumination". In the "Environment" tab, the "Skybox Material" should be selected as "None" (stated in a video), "Realtime Shadow Color" set to black. Under "Environment Lighting", set the Source to "Color" and the "Ambient Color" to black. The "Environment Reflections" are not used.
7. Create at least 5 PBR materials and add one to all surfaces, giving the floor, ceiling, back and front, left and right, and inner-walls different materials. The Unity Asset store has several free PBR materials. Look for ones that are bright and Updated Recently (sorting option). Cite what you use in your report. Some possibilities (Note: You may need to convert the materials to URP):
a. 9t5 PBR Textures Freebies
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/9t5-pbrtextures-freebies-171062
b. Gridbox Prototype Materials
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/gridboxprototype-materials-129127
8. Add dynamic lights with Mode set to mixed:
a. Perhaps a downward facing spotlight in the center of the front room. I suggest making it slightly angled. Range: 15, light bluish color, Intensity:
8, Indirect multiplier 1.3, Soft Shadows.
9. Add static lights with Mode set to baked:
a. 8-10 Point light sources along the front wall about 2-3 meters from the ceiling. A suggestion is to use 9 at 2-meter spacing, Range: 20, light yellowish color, Intensity: 0.5, Soft Shadows
b. 3 area light sources in the ceiling along the right wall in the front room.
Rectangle, Range: 15, Width 2, Height 3, Color white, Intensity: 4,
Indirect Multiplier: 2, Cast Shadows.
10. Create some emissive colors and static objects as follows:
a. A glowing-colored emissive object in the back-right corner.
b. A glowing-colored emissive object in the back-left corner (perhaps at a different height).
11. Add a few static objects that will cast shadows to your scene and assign them new PBR materials. These can be basic primitives in Unity or prefabs from the Asset
Store (Look in the category 3D/ Props/Furniture or 3D/Props/Interior). Cite what you use in your report. Some asset store possibilities (Note: You may need to convert the materials to URP):
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/furniture/big-furniture-pack-7717
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/polygon-dining-room-
199435https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/kitchen-cabinets-low-poly-183890
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/industrial/fps-props-147172
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/sci-fi/sci-fi -old-rusty-props-pbr-200267
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/picture-frames-with-photos-106907
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/furniture/dublin-chair-185929
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/furniture/hdrp-furniture-pack- 153946
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/furniture/bed-bath-furniture-pack-134117
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/qa-books-115415
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/christmas-decoration-props-159202
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/free-rug-pack-118178
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/clock-4250
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/realistic-bed-01-107993
12. Add a dynamic (not static) object to your scene. You can move this around with the transform to see how shadows and lights interact with it.
13. Add Light Probes. You can manually place these or better, write an editor script to create them. The illustration below went overboard and has a volume of 835 light probes procedurally.
14. Bake your lighting.
15. (2 points extra credit) Add a transparent sprite (A translucent texture set to Fade) to your scene.
16. See the “Expected Results” section at the end of this document to help you determine whether or not your results are acceptable.
Lab Report

Please submit a detailed report with an introduction, named sections, figures (figure numbers and captions), etc. in order to receive full credit. Your grade on this lab will only be based on the lab report. See my document on Carmen with guidelines on how to write your report. So please do not just provide short answers to the questions below as this will receive little credit towards your lab grade. Also, your lab report must contain much more content more than just answers to these questions. You must include PLENTY of screen shots of your results using good camera vantage points that best illustrate your work. You do not need to take screen shots of your settings. Instead, you can just state the important ones in your lab report.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The grader will not grade your Unity package solution.

Assume that the grader will not look at your Unity package solution when grading.

Again, your grade on this lab is based on your lab report only. Though, if your Unity package solution does not match what you state in your lab report then you will not receive credit for the lab.

Please include answers (in addition to other content describing what you have implemented) to the following questions in your report. Do not include the questions.

Use images to explain your answer where appropriate):

Include in your report (in addition to other content you will include) the following:

1. In order for your lab report to be graded, you must agree that you have not violated any course policy by copying and then pasting the following blurb into your lab report before the introduction: My lab submission only contains work that I have completed solely on my own from scratch. I pledge that my solution is neither copied, derived, nor constructed in any way from third party sources, e.g. other persons, websites, generative AI, etc. I understand that if my submitted work is found to be in violation of any course policy that an incident report will be submitted to the Committee on Academic Misconduct (COAM).

Inclusion of this blurb in your lab report means that you agree to this statement and that it is true. If this blurb does not appear in your lab report in its entirety then your submission will not be graded and receive a zero. Submission of an incident report to COAM may possibly result in failing the course, being placed on academic probation, expelled from the University, etc.

2. State with whom you have had discussions about the Lab.
3. What is in your scene? What is static? What is dynamic?
4. Where are your lights placed?
5. For your wall of 8-10 point-light sources. What is the difference between mixed lighting and baked lighting? Illustrate using images in both settings. Does your lighting need to be re-baked after changing these settings?
6. What happens when you turn some of these lights off, like say the first 4 in your hierarchy? Is there a difference when you turn off the first few in your hierarchy versus the last few?
7. What seems to be a good number of light probes placed on a grid? Why?
8. What seems to be a good number of light probes adjusted as in the videos? Why?
9. Why does my image of the right wall have a red tint?
10. What is a PBR material?
11. What is the difference between real-time, baked and mixed light modes?
12. How much memory did your baked lighting require?
Grading

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your grade on this lab will only be based on the lab report!

The graders will not grade based off of your Unity package. Assume that the grader will not look at the Unity package you submit. Please write a complete and thorough (though, not too long) lab report to receive full credit. Note that the grader will only look at the Unity package you submit as a reference if they need verification on what you wrote in your lab report.
Submission
In addition to your report (submit this as a PDF file), submit a Unity package. The naming convention of both files is YourlastnameLab4, e.g. shareefLab4.pdf and shareefLab4.unitypackage.

Within Unity, right-click the scene file and choose Export Package … This ensures that only the files used in the scene are exported (as well as all scripts as it cannot tell sometimes). Save the package as YourlastnameLab4. This should result in a file called YourLastNameLab4.unitypackage being created in the folder you specified (hint, use Documents or some other space). This is the file you should turn in for grading.

Under the Lab 4 assignment on Carmen, submit both the PDF file and the unitypackage file using File Upload option (not the Buckeye Box option).

You can test to determine if you have made the package correctly by creating a new

Unity project. Open the package file from a file browser, import all of the files in it, open the scene within Unity, and click play.

Expected ResultsHere is the baked lightmap for the right wall:

2026-04-01