Image-Based Lighting in UPBGE

Environment Lighting was already a feature in BGE, it helped improve our scenes a lot. However only Sky Color and White options were available, so we could hardly get anything to look fine when using a background image.

So as of version 0.2.0 of UPBGE, we now get to use the Sky Texture as a light source!

With Environment Lighting (top), and Without Environment Lighting (bottom)

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To use it it's very simple: First you need a correct-sized cubemap in a Blender-ready format (It sounds complicated but you can make those in Blender).

A Blender-ready cubemap.

Size

The image width must be divisible by 3, and the result of that division should be equal to the height divided by 2. So for example if your cubemap is 3072 by 2048: 3072 ÷ 3 = 1024 and 2048 ÷ 2 = 1024. Both results are equal, so Blender will not complain about the size mismatch!

Using it as an Environment Map

To use it as an environment map, you have to set it up as the world background texture. So in the World panel go to the Texture panel (That way the Texture will be applied to World), then add a new Texture  and set the type to Environment Map:

New Texture

Load your Texture as usual and under Influence enable "Blend", "Horizon", "Zenith Up" and "Zenith Down":

Now just go back to the World panel, and enable "Real Sky" and then "Environment Lighting". Then change the type to "Sky Texture":

You can play around with the Energy value, higher values can give you a more realistic look sometimes.
And that's about everything you need to do to use this great feature! Until next time!

Finished!