---
title: Global illumination and baked lighting
framework: realitykit
role: collectionGroup
role_heading: API Collection
path: realitykit/scene-content-global-illumination
---

# Global illumination and baked lighting

Light scenes realistically by precomputing illumination so surfaces pick up bounced color and ambient detail without recalculating it every frame.

## Overview

Overview This collection gathers the tools for adding precomputed and environment-based lighting to your scenes. Use it to choose how surfaces respond to light, to bake static illumination and capture indirect light that nearby objects can sample, and to generate the surrounding imagery that lights a scene and fills its background. Reach for these features when you want richer, more believable lighting than real-time computation alone provides, while keeping rendering efficient. They suit scenes with mostly fixed lighting, where investing in precomputation pays off in visual quality and performance.

## Topics

### Lighting models

- [LightingModel](realitykit/lightingmodel.md)
- [LitLightingModel](realitykit/litlightingmodel.md)
- [UnlitLightingModel](realitykit/unlitlightingmodel.md)
- [HairLightingModel](realitykit/hairlightingmodel.md)

### Lightmaps and light probes

- [LightmapResource](realitykit/lightmapresource.md)
- [LightmapComponent](realitykit/lightmapcomponent.md)
- [DiffuseProbeResource](realitykit/diffuseproberesource.md)
- [DiffuseLightProbeGroupComponent](realitykit/diffuselightprobegroupcomponent.md)
- [DiffuseLightProbeReceiverComponent](realitykit/diffuselightprobereceivercomponent.md)

### Environment texture generation

- [ImageBasedLightTextureGenerator](realitykit/imagebasedlighttexturegenerator.md)
- [SkyboxGenerator](realitykit/skyboxgenerator.md)
- [TextureSamplingQuality](realitykit/texturesamplingquality.md)

## See Also

### Scene content

- [Hello World](visionos/world.md)
- [Enabling video reflections in an immersive environment](visionos/enabling-video-reflections-in-an-immersive-environment.md)
- [Creating a spatial drawing app with RealityKit](realitykit/creating-a-spatial-drawing-app-with-realitykit.md)
- [Generating interactive geometry with RealityKit](realitykit/generating-interactive-geometry-with-realitykit.md)
- [Combining 2D and 3D views in an immersive app](realitykit/combining-2d-and-3d-views-in-an-immersive-app.md)
- [Transforming RealityKit entities using gestures](realitykit/transforming-realitykit-entities-with-gestures.md)
- [Responding to gestures on an entity](realitykit/responding-to-gestures-on-an-entity.md)
- [Models and meshes](realitykit/scene-content-models-and-meshes.md)
- [Materials, textures, and shaders](realitykit/scene-content-materials-and-shaders.md)
- [Anchors](realitykit/scene-content-anchors.md)
- [Lights and cameras](realitykit/scene-content-lights-and-cameras.md)
- [Content synchronization](realitykit/scene-content-content-synchronization.md)
- [Audio](realitykit/scene-content-audio.md)
- [Videos](realitykit/scene-content-videos.md)
- [Images](realitykit/scene-content-images.md)