🤔 Unity, huh, how?

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Normals and lighting

If a surface isn't lit correctly—a point light doesn't light a circular area for example—then you likely have an issue with normals.

Normals are vectors describing the direction a surface faces. Lighting won’t make sense when normals are configured incorrectly.

Resolution

Different sources of normals can be incorrect:

Vertex normals

Check that your model normals are correct.

  1. In the model tab of the Model Import Settings window set Normals to Calculate.
  2. If your model is now lit correctly, you should set/recalculate normals in your modelling program before importing.

Validate your setup by comparing against a built-in model and material.

Normal maps

If you're using a normal map, check that it's imported correctly.

  1. In the texture importer, set Texture Type to Normal Map.
  2. Unity uses Y+ normal maps, sometimes known as OpenGL format. Check that your normal map is in the correct format.

Validate your setup by comparing against a material with no normal map applied.

Shaders

If you're using a custom shader, you may have transformed the normals incorrectly.

  1. Normals generated in the vertex stage should be output in object space.
  2. Normals generated in the fragment stage should be output in tangent space.

Validate your setup by comparing against default materials.

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