Point lights in BGE

Just writing this thread by curiosity. I’ve noticed that many game engine like Source engine, Cry engine, etc. can handle a lot of “point light” per game scene, but putting a lot of point lights in BGE quickly slows it down. Is there a way to add some points of light with fast calculation, or is there only the baking shadow system to do it ? I don’t expect full point lights system but at least multiple source of diffuse light.

If your environment is static (not moving), you could use cycles baking to ensure you also get light bounces, then you can set it to shadeless and you won’t need any lamps. Otherwise I could imagine using something like a light manager that adds lights as you get close to it, perhaps something like LoD.

This should be in the support section (as it is not a resource for others to use).

Thanks I’ll try both !

The LOD method sounds great. Anyway, there are multiple types of light uses. If you need inroom lights, you can use script(I don’t know where to find it) that makes the point light “shaped”(adds multiple sources of light from one lamp. That prevents a lot of calculation(because, if there are 2 point lights close each other, their energy doubles in the place where lights mixes). With that script you can use one light for large area with one settings. However, indoor scenes without any important lighting systems(like speculars) can be baked in cycles as Thatimster said. If you need outdoor scenes with shadows csted by lights, you should ertex parent the sun to character, so the shadows follow character(otherwise, leaving the range of sun shadows might cause shadow loss).