53-654 Principles of Lighting for Games and XR

6 units, Carnegie Mellon University

Lighting is a key factor in bringing interactive environments to life, shaping both their visual quality and emotional impact. It's also one of the most underutilized systems for beginning game developers and artists. This course will teach students how to enhance their work by demonstrating how to design, implement, and optimize lighting within the Unity game engine. Students will explore the fundamentals of light behavior and composition while learning how real-time engines simulate illumination. Through a series of lectures and hands-on Unity workshops, students will learn how to use techniques such as dynamic and baked lighting, shadow mapping, global illumination, and reflection probes.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Spring 2027, Spring 2026

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