<p>There are several papers like this one <a href="http://web.cs.wpi.edu/%7Eemmanuel/publications/PDFs/C13.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> that refer to a concept called many-light global illumination using Virtual Point Lights (VPL). That is, the problem of global illumination is reduced to a matter of direct illumination by simply placing &quot;invisible&quot; light sources all over the place in the scene. To me this sounds suspiciously like Light Probes (Unity Engine) or GIProbes (Godot Engine). Are Light Probes simply a way to implement the concept of many-light global illumination?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-11T18:02:47.640Z
https://computergraphics.stackexchange.com/questions/233/how-is-a-light-probe-different-than-an-environmental-cube-map
lightxbulb
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T09:45:53.513Z
@lightxbulb Thank you. But I don't think that this answers my question.
Sam
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T10:13:04.363Z
The above was meant to explain what a light probe is. A point light on the other hand typically doesn't refer to something that has directionally varying radiance in practice. So the light probes and point lights in vpl would typically be categorized differently, although categories in CG are extremely blurry. I guess the answer to your question is yes, but that's a rather tautological question in the first place. I am not quite sure what you expect as an answer.
lightxbulb
<lighting><global-illumination>
Are virtual point lights in many-light global illumination the same light probes?
Sam
# Are virtual point lights in many-light global illumination the same light probes?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-01-11)

There are several papers like this one [here](http://web.cs.wpi.edu/%7Eemmanuel/publications/PDFs/C13.pdf) that refer to a concept called many-light global illumination using Virtual Point Lights (VPL). That is, the problem of global illumination is reduced to a matter of direct illumination by simply placing "invisible" light sources all over the place in the scene. To me this sounds suspiciously like Light Probes (Unity Engine) or GIProbes (Godot Engine). Are Light Probes simply a way to implement the concept of many-light global illumination?

**Tags:** lighting, global-illumination

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: https://computergraphics.stackexchange.com/questions/233/how-is-a-light-probe-different-than-an-environmental-cube-map  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Thank you. But I don't think that this answers my question.  
> **username_1**: The above was meant to explain what a light probe is. A point light on the other hand typically doesn't refer to something that has directionally varying radiance in practice. So the light probes and point lights in vpl would typically be categorized differently, although categories in CG are extremely blurry. I guess the answer to your question is yes, but that's a rather tautological question in the first place. I am not quite sure what you expect as an answer.  

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