# The Light component

Lights determine the shading of an object and the shadows it casts.

This page contains information on Light components in the Universal Render Pipeline (URP). For a general introduction to lighting in Unity and examples of common lighting workflows, see [the Lighting section of the Unity Manual](https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/LightingOverview.html). 

## Properties
![](Images/Inspectors/light-inspector.png)

| Property:| Function: |
|:---|:---|
| __Type__| The current type of light. Possible values are __Directional__, __Point__, __Spot__ and __Area__.|
| __Range__| Define how far the light emitted from the center of the object travels (__Point__ and __Spot__ lights only). |
| __Spot Angle__| Define the angle (in degrees) at the base of a spot light’s cone (__Spot__ light only). |
| __Color__| Use the color picker to set the color of the emitted light. |
| __Mode__| Specify the [Light Mode](https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/LightModes.html) used to determine if and how a light is "baked". Possible modes are __Realtime__, __Mixed__ and __Baked__.|
| __Intensity__| Set the brightness of the light. The default value for a __Directional__ light is 0.5. The default value for a __Point__, __Spot__ or __Area__ light is 1.  |
| __Indirect Multiplier__| Use this value to vary the intensity of indirect light. Indirect light is light that has bounced from one object to another. The __Indirect Multiplier__ defines the brightness of bounced light calculated by the global illumination (GI) system. If you set __Indirect Multiplier__ to a value lower than __1,__ the bounced light becomes dimmer with every bounce. A value higher than __1__ makes light brighter with each bounce. This is useful, for example, when a dark surface in shadow (such as the interior of a cave) needs to be brighter in order to make detail visible. |
| __Shadow Type__| Determine whether this Light casts Hard Shadows, Soft Shadows, or no shadows at all. See documentation on [Shadows](https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/ShadowOverview.html) for information on hard and soft shadows. |
|    Baked Shadow Angle| If __Type__ is set to __Directional__ and __Shadow Type__ is set to __Soft Shadows__, this property adds some artificial softening to the edges of shadows and gives them a more natural look. |
|    Baked Shadow Radius| If __Type__ is set to __Point__ or __Spot__ and __Shadow Type__ is set to __Soft Shadows__, this property adds some artificial softening to the edges of shadows and gives them a more natural look. |
|    Realtime Shadows| These properties are available when __Shadow Type__ is set to __Hard Shadows__ or __Soft Shadows__. Use these properties to control real-time shadow rendering settings. |
|        Strength| Use the slider to control how dark the shadows cast by this Light are, represented by a value between 0 and 1. This is set to 1 by default. |
|        Bias| Controls whether to use shadow bias settings from the URP Asset, or whether to define custom shadow bias settings for this Light. Possible values are **Use Pipeline Settings** or **Custom**.|
|        Depth| Controls the distance at which the shadows will be pushed away from the light. Useful for avoiding false self-shadowing artifacts. This property is visible only when **Bias** is set to **Custom**.|
|        Normal| Controls the distance at which the shadow casting surfaces will be shrunk along the surface normal. Useful for avoiding false self-shadowing artifacts. This property is visible only when **Bias** is set to **Custom**.|
|        Near Plane| Use the slider to control the value for the near clip plane when rendering shadows, defined as a value between 0.1 and 10. This value is clamped to 0.1 units or 1% of the light’s __Range__ property, whichever is lower. This is set to 0.2 by default. |
| __Render Mode__| Use this drop-down to set the rendering priority of the selected Light. This can affect lighting fidelity and performance (see *Performance Considerations,* below). |
|    Auto| The rendering method is determined at run time, depending on the brightness of nearby lights and the current [Quality](https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-QualitySettings.html) settings. |
|    Important| The light is always rendered at per-pixel quality. Use __Important__ mode only for the most noticeable visual effects (for example, the headlights of a player’s car). |
|    Not Important| The light is always rendered in a faster, vertex/object light mode.  |
| __Culling Mask__| Use this to selectively exclude groups of objects from being affected by the Light. For more information, see [Layers](https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/Layers.html).|