Lights System

01Quick Start

Add a pair of headlights:

1. Select your vehicle (the root or any child of it).
2. Tools → BoneCracker Games → Realistic Car Controller → Create → Lights → Add Lights To Vehicle → HeadLight. A headlight is added under a Lights child of the vehicle (created if missing) and selected.
3. Move it to the left headlamp.
4. Tools → BoneCracker Games → Realistic Car Controller → Create → Lights → Duplicate Selected Light. The copy is mirrored on the X axis, so it lands on the right headlamp.

Press Play and toggle low beams with L, high beams with K. All light controls are in Input System.

02How Lights Work

Each vehicle light is a GameObject with a Unity Light and an RCC_Light. Every frame, RCC_Light reads its parent vehicle's state (low beams, brake, gear, indicators) and sets the Light's intensity.

• Full brightness is the Light component's Intensity when the game starts. Set brightness there.
• Lights fade in at a speed set by Inertia and switch off instantly.
• A light that is not under an RCC_CarControllerV4 stays off.

03Adding Lights

Menu: Tools → BoneCracker Games → Realistic Car Controller → Create → Lights → Add Lights To Vehicle →

Move each new light to its lamp, then use Duplicate Selected Light for the other side. The vehicle inspector's Lights tab has the same + Head Light, + Brake Light, + Reverse Light and + Indicator Light buttons, plus the Low Beam Head Lights On, High Beam Head Lights On and Interior Lights On toggles for the starting state.

Lights in front of the vehicle's center must face forward; lights behind it must face backward. If one faces the wrong way, the RCC_Light inspector shows Light is facing to wrong direction! with a Fix Rotation button.

Shipped light prefabs

04Light Types

Set with Light Type on the RCC_Light. There is one Indicator type: its side (left or right) comes from its position on the vehicle.

Figure 01Open full size ↗

Figure 02Open full size ↗

Head Light and High Beam Head Light overwrite the Light's Range and Spot Angle every frame, and a Head Light without a High Beam Head Light also overwrites its own rotation. Edit Intensity and Color only. To aim headlights, rotate a parent object.

Figure 03Open full size ↗

Figure 04Open full size ↗

Figure 05Open full size ↗

The M3_E36 and M5_E30 demo vehicles use Park Lights and High Beam Head Lights.

05RCC_Light Inspector

Shipped defaults are from the prefabs in the table above.

Figure 06Open full size ↗

Emission (glowing lamp meshes)

Enable Use Emission Texture and add one entry per lamp material:

06Controlling Lights from Code

Light state lives on RCC_CarControllerV4:

using UnityEngine;

public class VehicleLightsExample : MonoBehaviour {

    [Tooltip("Vehicle to control. Leave empty to use the active player vehicle.")]
    public RCC_CarControllerV4 vehicle;

    // Hook these to UI buttons or your own day/night system.
    public void SetNightMode(bool night) {

        RCC_CarControllerV4 target = GetVehicle();

        if (!target)
            return;

        target.lowBeamHeadLightsOn = night;
        target.interiorLightsOn = night;

    }

    public void ToggleHazards() {

        RCC_CarControllerV4 target = GetVehicle();

        if (!target)
            return;

        target.indicatorsOn = target.indicatorsOn == RCC_CarControllerV4.IndicatorsOn.All
            ? RCC_CarControllerV4.IndicatorsOn.Off
            : RCC_CarControllerV4.IndicatorsOn.All;

    }

    private RCC_CarControllerV4 GetVehicle() {

        return vehicle ? vehicle : RCC_SceneManager.Instance.activePlayerVehicle;

    }

}

Player key presses toggle these same fields, but only while the vehicle can be controlled and is not externally controlled. Light inputs are also raised as events on RCC_Events — see Events System.

07Performance: Pixel vs Vertex Lights

Tools → BoneCracker Games → Realistic Car Controller → Edit RCC Settings → Optimization sets each light's render mode when the vehicle starts (unless Override RenderMode is on):

On = vertex (cheap), Off = pixel. High Beam Head Light and Interior use the Render Mode field. RCC Settings recommends vertex lights on mobile.

08Render Pipelines and Lens Flares

• Built-in: RCC_Light drives Unity's legacy LensFlare component with the Lens Flare asset. If front lens flares flicker at speed, add your RCC vehicle layer to the LensFlare's Ignore Layers.
• URP / HDRP: RCC_Light drives a LensFlareComponentSRP on the same GameObject. The Render Pipeline Converter's 2. Convert RCC Lens Flares to SRP button replaces the legacy flares on all RCC prefabs, using RCC Settings → Lensflare URP. On URP, a vehicle also replaces any remaining legacy flares, and adds an SRP flare to lights without one, when it starts.
• HDRP: lights need much higher intensities. When you edit an RCC_Light that has Emission entries, an Intensity of 1 or less is raised to 600, and a Head Light at 600 or less to 1600.

Full pipeline setup: Render Pipelines.

09Breakable Lights

When the vehicle's damage Light toggle is on, a collision near a light lowers its Strength. At Break Point or below, the light goes dark until the vehicle is repaired, for example with RCC.Repair(vehicle). Turn Is Breakable off for lights that should never break. Damage radius and multiplier: Damage System.

10See Also

• Input System — light keys and gamepad buttons
• Damage System — light damage settings
• Render Pipelines — URP / HDRP conversion
• RCC Settings — light prefabs and optimization options
• Events System — light input events