# Global Illumination

## Global Illumination

[*Global illumination*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_illumination), also called GI for short, simulates the way light reflects off objects in the scene, providing more realistic-looking rendering at the cost of potentially reduced performance as the light reflections are calculated.

Global illumination can be set with the **Global Illum Quality** dropdown menu under [Light Settings](https://help.sansar.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003183343#light%settings) in the [Scene Settings](https://help.sansar.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003183343) properties panel. This setting determines the quality of global illumination shown in the scene, with increasing detail at each level. **Preview** provides the lowest detail and the fastest build time for the scene, and **Best** shows the most detail at the cost of a very extended scene build time.

| ![](https://i3.wp.com/help.sansar.com/hc/article_attachments/115010795103/Light_settings.png)                    |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Global illumination quality settings.                                                                            |
| **Note:** Activating global illumination can substantially extend the processing time required to build a scene. |

**Tips and best practices**

Here are a few tips, tricks, and best practices to help you get the most out of global illumination in its current evolving state:

* If light leaks through some of the walls in your scene, consider making your walls thicker.
* If your scene seems overly bright, try adjusting **Sky Brightness** in the [scene settings](https://help.sansar.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003183343).
* If you notice that the shadows in your scene that are lit by global illumination seem "noisy" or look like mosaic artifacts, you may need to consider setting **Global Illum Quality** higher.

  **Note:** Increasing global illumination quality also substantially increases processing time when building the scene.

#### Have more questions? Ask in our [Discord!](http://discord.gg/sansarofficial)