Showing off SDFGI

In this recipe, we will download a 3D asset so that we can see how signed distance field global illumination (SDFGI) looks and go through all of the settings to see what they do. SDFGI is a real-time global illumination method that uses Signed Distance Fields (SDFs) to create lighting in real time.

We will also look at Screen-Space Indirect Lighting (SSIL), which works with SDFGI or VoxelGI and is indirect lighting that allows diffuse light to bounce off of nearby objects.

Getting ready

For this recipe, open Godot 4 and start a new project called Chapter 3. Go to the https://polyhaven.com/a/ship_pinnace website and download the free glTF 2.0 file using the drop-down arrow. Double-click the ZIP file and extract the file to a new folder called Ship Pinnace or whatever you want to call it:

Figure 3.1 – glTF file download

You can also download the project from this book’s GitHub repository.

Make sure the renderer is set...