Reflection Probe

Starting from v3.7, Cocos Creator supports reflection probes.

A reflection probe is a component that takes reflected light from a selected range and applies it to the current scene using baking or realtime to improve the scene lighting confidence.

You can create reflection probes within a scene by selecting Light -> Reflection Probes in the Hierarchy or on the top menu.

Properties

Properties	Description
Size	The range of the reflection probe, which can be adjusted by manipulating Gizmo within the scene
Probe Type	Types of Reflection Probes Options: CUBE: Reflection probe with baking support PLANNAR: Reflection probe with real-time reflection support
Resolution	Resolution of each face of the cube mapping after reflective probe baking Options: Low_256x256/Medium_512x512/Hight_768x768 This option is only available when Probe Type is CUBE.
Background Color	Background color, effective only when Probe Type is PLANNAR
Clear Flag	The clear flag of the camera specifies which part of the frame buffer is to be cleared each frame. Contains SOLID_COLOR: clears the color, depth, and stencil buffers SKYBOX: enables the skybox and only clears the depth
Visibility	Visibility mask declaring the set of node hierarchies visible in the current reflection probe Selectable via drop-down menu
Source Camera	Specify the camera for real-time reflections This property is only available when Probe Type is PLANNAR
Bake	Bake button, click it to bake the reflection probe

Probe Type

There are two types of reflection probes for Cocos Creator.

• CUBE：Bake the reflection information in the area onto a CUBE Map.

  

  With the reflection probe selected as CUBE, developers can select the size of the final baked map via the RESOLUTION drop-down menu below.

• PLANNAR：Real-time relection probe type.

  Commonly used to simulate the surface of water, mirrors, marble or wet floors, etc.

  

  When the type of the reflection probe is modified to PLANNAR, the developer needs to configure the Source Camera property to determine which camera to use as the camera for the reflection probe.

The Size property can be adjusted via Gizmo within the Scene Editor as a way to modify the range of the reflection probe.

Art workflow example

Bake Reflection Probe Workflow

• Create Reflection Probe nodes within the scene

• Modify the Mobility property of the node that needs to bake the reflection to Static

  

• Find Reflection Probe Settings by scrolling down on the Inspector of the node where the reflection needs to be baked, and adjust its corresponding property to.

  

  • Reflection Probe: Select the type of reflection probe

  • Bake To Reflection Probe: Check whether to bake the reflection information of this mesh renderer to the reflection probe related map

    For detail, please refer to MeshRenderer Component Reference

• Bake

  • Click the Bake button on the Inspector to bake the currently selected reflection probe.

    

  • Select Projects -> Light -> Reflection Probe on the main menu to open the Reflection Probe Panel and bake by clicking the bake button on the panel.

• Check baking results

  After baking is complete, Asset Manager creates mappings named starting with reflectionProbe_ within the Asset Manager. Developers can see if these mappings meet expectations.

For more examples, please refer to IBL Example.

Real-time Reflection Probe Workflow

• Build the scene as shown in the figure.

  

• Create Reflection Probe nodes in the scene:

  • Modify Probe Type to PLANNAR

  • Configure the Source Camera property to be the Main Camera node created in the above step

    

• Modify the Reflection Probe of the MeshRenderer property of the Plane node in the scene to PLANNAR_REFLECTION.

  

• At this point it can be observed that within the scene, the reflection of the plane changes.