Chapter 11 — Lighting¶

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Overview¶

The Lighting class (added in RMAPI 5.3.0) controls a scene's ambient lighting — the soft, directionless light applied to every dynamically lit surface. It is the merged form of the old "Optimized Graphics Fix" mod.

using RumbleModdingAPI.RMAPI;
using UnityEngine;

Ambient lighting is a per-scene setting in Unity, so RMAPI reapplies your chosen values automatically every time a new scene loads — set them once and they stick.

Ambient Modes¶

Unity has two ambient modes, and UseBounceLighting switches between them:

Lighting.UseBounceLighting(true);   // Trilight — sky/horizon/ground colors apply
Lighting.UseBounceLighting(false);  // Skybox — ambient comes from the skybox (default)

Trilight blends three colors across each surface (top, sides, bottom). The three Set*Color methods below only have a visible effect in this mode.
Skybox derives ambient light from the scene's skybox. This is RUMBLE's default for most scenes (the Loader scene already uses Trilight).

Ambient Colors¶

Three methods set the Trilight colors. Each takes a nullable Color — pass null (or call with no argument) to reset that color to RUMBLE's default.

Lighting.SetSkyLightColor(new Color(0.5f, 0.6f, 0.9f));   // light on surface tops
Lighting.SetHorizonLightColor(Color.gray);                // light on surface sides
Lighting.SetGroundLightColor(new Color(0.1f, 0.05f, 0f)); // light on surface bottoms

Lighting.SetSkyLightColor();      // reset sky color to default
Lighting.SetHorizonLightColor();  // reset horizon color to default
Lighting.SetGroundLightColor();   // reset ground color to default

Method	Affects	Default color (RGB)
`SetSkyLightColor`	Top of lit surfaces	`0.350, 0.428, 0.584`
`SetHorizonLightColor`	Sides of lit surfaces	`0.114, 0.125, 0.133`
`SetGroundLightColor`	Bottom of lit surfaces	`0.047, 0.043, 0.035`

Locking¶

Multiple mods may want to control lighting. The lock prevents your settings from being changed by another mod.

Lighting.Lock();          // lock with priority 1 (default)
Lighting.Lock(5);         // lock with a higher priority

Lighting.Unlock();        // unlock with priority 1
Lighting.Unlock(5);       // unlock with priority 5

While locked, every Lighting setter (UseBounceLighting, Set*Color) is a no-op — including calls from the mod that holds the lock.
Unlock is ignored if the current lock has a higher priority and was taken by a different mod. A mod can always unlock its own lock.

Be a good citizen. Pick a low lock priority. Your mod is not the main character — only raise the priority if you have a genuine reason to override everyone else, and expect other mods to respect the same courtesy.

Method Summary¶

Method	Description
`UseBounceLighting(bool)`	`true` = Trilight, `false` = Skybox
`SetSkyLightColor(Color?)`	Top-of-surface light color (`null` resets)
`SetHorizonLightColor(Color?)`	Side-of-surface light color (`null` resets)
`SetGroundLightColor(Color?)`	Bottom-of-surface light color (`null` resets)
`Lock(int priority = 1)`	Block other mods from changing lighting
`Unlock(int priority = 1)`	Release the lock (ignored if outranked)

Full Example: Warm Evening Lighting¶

using MelonLoader;
using RumbleModdingAPI.RMAPI;
using UnityEngine;

namespace WarmLighting
{
    public class WarmLighting : MelonMod
    {
        public override void OnLateInitializeMelon()
        {
            // Switch to Trilight so the color methods take effect
            Lighting.UseBounceLighting(true);

            Lighting.SetSkyLightColor(new Color(0.9f, 0.6f, 0.4f));
            Lighting.SetHorizonLightColor(new Color(0.4f, 0.25f, 0.2f));
            Lighting.SetGroundLightColor(new Color(0.1f, 0.06f, 0.04f));

            // Hold the look so other mods don't overwrite it
            Lighting.Lock();
        }
    }
}

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