H_FakeLights URP (Decal Lighting In Distance for Maximum Performance)

💡 H_FakeLights (URP)

Performance-focused fake lighting for large URP scenes.

Cheap decal lighting at distance, real-time lights only where they matter.

❓ The Problem

Large URP levels and dynamic lighting systems don’t mix well.

If you’re building:

• Big open maps with day/night cycles
• Or anything where lightmapping isn’t an option

You usually end up with:

❌ Too many real-time lights

❌ Massive CPU & GPU cost

❌ Compromises in visual quality or scale

Turning lights on and off manually doesn’t scale — and lightmapping large, dynamic scenes often isn’t viable.

✅ The Solution

H_FakeLights replaces distant real-time lights with cheap, decal-based “fake” lighting, and only enables the expensive real-time lights when the player (or camera) is close.

Result:

• The scene still looks lit
• Performance stays under control
• Real-time lighting is preserved where it actually matters

This is a lighting trick and it’s a production-friendly system designed for real games.

⚡ URP vs HDRP Performance (Important)

URP (Primary Target)

• Fully tested and production-ready
• Instanced decal projectors are a fraction of the cost of real-time lights
• Significant performance savings in large scenes
• Ideal for open levels, interiors, and dynamic lighting setups

HDRP

• Fully functional and supported via scripting define symbols
• However, HDRP decal projectors are almost as expensive as real-time lights
• Performance gains are minimal compared to URP
• Best used for workflow consistency or visual control, not performance wins

This asset is URP-first by design. Buy for HDRP only if you want to experiment with it!

🌍 Perfect Use Case

Have a URP project with large maps, dynamic lighting, or a day/night system — and you:

• Can’t rely on lightmaps
• Still need lots of lights
• Want real-time lights near the player

H_FakeLights is built exactly for that scenario.

You get:

• Fake lights in the distance at very low cost
• Real-time lights close to the player
• Full control over the final look

🔧 Key Features

• Decal-based fake lighting using DecalProjector
• Camera-based trigger system to activate/deactivate lights by distance
• Optional smooth fade in / fade out
• DepthManual per-light tuning:
  Color
  Intensity
  Size
  
• URP & HDRP compatibility via scripting define symbols
• Designed for large scenes and performance-sensitive projects

🧱 Simple & Scalable Setup

✔ One manager per scene

✔ Trigger handler attached to the camera

✔ One trigger per light you want controlled

No complex lighting pipelines.

Not much editor gymnastics.

📍 See for yourself:

Download demo here.

This system has been used and tested in production on an unreleased game, in real gameplay scenarios — not a tech demo. You can see that in the presentation video.

💬 Support

Need help or have questions?

📩 Email: assetsupport@hypergamey.studio

💬 Discord (fast & friendly support): https://discord.gg/4UB6x2bVge