Noise-driven fire light rig with bounce, core, embers and glow
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# Dynamic fire light
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`scripts/fire_light.gd` replaces the old single light with sinusoidal flicker. One
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noise signal now drives the light rig **and** the flame, so brightness, colour, shadow
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sway and flame height pulse together.
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## Research
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Perplexity answered this time (it had been unavailable in earlier sessions), and the
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official documentation was checked in parallel:
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- Godot renderer comparison table — Compatibility is the only method available for the
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web target. It supports 8 OmniLights per mesh by default, glow, depth/height fog and
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SSAO, and it does **not** support volumetric fog, light projector textures, PCSS,
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SSIL, SDFGI, decals or CompositorEffects post-processing. Lights **with** shadows are
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drawn in extra passes and blended in sRGB, so they differ in appearance and dominate
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the cost: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/3d/overview_of_renderers.html
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- Faking global illumination — for positional lights, add a second OmniLight3D as a
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child of the main one with +25/50% range, shadows off, energy 10-40% and specular 0:
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https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/3d/global_illumination/faking_global_illumination.html
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- FastNoiseLite (`get_noise_1d`, Perlin, seed):
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https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_fastnoiselite.html
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- Key advice from Perplexity: continuous noise instead of per-frame randomness, fixed
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`omni_range`, frame-rate independent smoothing, amplitude 15-30%, colour variation
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smaller than brightness, `omni_attenuation` ~2 for a physical falloff, one shadowed
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light only, and profile illumination and shadows separately.
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- Community: hard on/off flicker makes the lit area visibly "expand" after each switch,
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so the light is never toggled. Particles are lit inconsistently by a light placed
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inside the same particle system, which is why the flame stays unshaded and luminous on
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its own (the light only lights the room).
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## Implementation
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| Element | Value | Reason |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| Main light | energy 1.9-2.8, range **fixed** 10, attenuation 1.6, shadows **on** (cube) | the only shadow caster; animating the range makes the boundary breathe |
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| Noise | FastNoiseLite Perlin, seed 20261011, 0.8 Hz (weight 0.75) + 7 Hz (0.25), gain 1.6, response 15 | smooth, deterministic, frame-rate independent, no strobing |
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| Colour drift | green 0.36-0.42, blue 0.07-0.12 | deliberately smaller than the brightness swing |
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| Sway | ±4 cm at ~1.2 Hz, main light only | makes the shadows move; kept subtle |
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| Bounce light | child, range 14 (=+40%), energy 20%, shadows off, specular 0, attenuation 1.5 | documented fake-GI recipe; no indirect lighting exists in Compatibility |
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| Core light | range 3.5, energy 45%, shadows off, 45 cm below the main light | hot glow at the flame |
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| Embers | 8 unshaded additive particles, 1.8 s | cheapest large realism gain |
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| Flame | quad height ±8%, material brightness ±25% | visibly breathes with the light |
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| Glow | enabled, intensity 0.45, blend additive, `hdr_threshold` **1.3**, levels 2-4 | stands in for the missing volumetric fog; a high threshold keeps the amber HUD from blooming |
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Total: 6 omni lights in the room (2 desk lamps, 3 fire, 1 muzzle flash), only one with
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shadows, against the default limit of 8 per mesh.
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## Measured cost (desktop Radeon 780M, GL Compatibility, 1280x720, vsync off)
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| State | FPS | Frame time |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| Fire rig active | 262.6 | 3.8 ms |
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| Fire lights hidden | 250.7 | 4.0 ms |
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| Shadows off | 588.4 | 1.7 ms |
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The three fire lights are inside the measurement noise; the single shadow-casting light
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costs about 2.1 ms, i.e. more than half the frame. That matches the documentation and is
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the intended trade: the shadow is what makes the fire feel present. On a phone the same
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ratio is expected to be heavier, and this workstation cannot measure it. To shed the cost
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on weak devices, in this order: `main_light.shadow_enabled = false`, glow off, then
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`fire_rig.main_light.visible = false`.
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## Pitfalls found while implementing
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1. **Dual-paraboloid shadows do not exist in Compatibility.** Setting
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`OmniLight3D.SHADOW_DUAL_PARABOLOID` logs `Dual paraboloid shadow mode not supported in
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the Compatibility renderer` and the light loses its shadows. Only `SHADOW_CUBE`
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works, even though the class reference describes the other mode as faster. Advice
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found online ("try dual paraboloid first") is wrong for this renderer.
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2. Keep `omni_range` constant; animating it makes the light edge visibly expand.
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3. Never switch the light off to flicker: the lit area visibly pops afterwards.
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4. Keep fire particles unshaded and additive; the light must only light the room.
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5. Raise the glow threshold before trusting it: at the default 1.0 the amber HUD panels
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bloom.
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6. When taking verification screenshots, stop wave spawning first: a zombie that reached
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the camera looks like a rendering bug but is just a silhouette in front of the lens.
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## Verification
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```sh
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"$G" --headless --path . --script res://tools/test_fire_light.gd
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"$G" --display-driver x11 --rendering-method gl_compatibility --path . --script res://tools/shot_fire.gd
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```
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`test_fire_light.gd` simulates 60 s at 60 Hz on the pure noise signal and checks: energy
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stays inside 1.9-2.8 (measured 1.96-2.76), deviation above 0.05 (0.135, so the fire is
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alive), maximum per-frame step below 0.05 (0.036, so no strobing), the three lights move
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together, the range stays fixed, bounce and core have no shadows and no specular, the
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bounce is a child at +40% range, only the main light casts shadows, the sway stays inside
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±4 cm (measured 3.5 cm) while actually moving, the flame height varies, embers exist,
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and two rigs with the same seed produce identical signals. `test_office_atmosphere.gd`
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was updated to the new light budget. All eleven suites pass.
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Images `/tmp/zombie-fire-{basso,alto,alto-scarto,insieme}.png` compare the dim and bright
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phases, the same brightness with a different sway phase, and a wide view: the wall and
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ceiling illumination, the floor shadow and the flame halo all change together, and the
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HUD stays crisp.
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