Lit - 2D Lighting Engine

Drop-in 2D lighting for Godot 4 — with no light limit.

Lit is an alongside replacement for Godot's built-in 2D lights. It keeps the parts you like (add a node, set some values, done) and fixes the part you don't: the hard cap of ~15 lights per object. Light a whole scene with as many lights as you want, get real soft shadows, and stack on a pile of post-processing — all without leaving the node workflow.

Requires Godot 4.4+ on the Forward+ renderer. (Mobile/Compatibility aren't supported.)

Support

Lit is made and maintained by Fading Lantern Games. Questions, bugs, or just want to show off what you built? Come hang out in our Discord:

→ https://discord.gg/nfqeRGnM7P

Installation

From the Godot Asset Library (recommended)

1. In Godot, open the AssetLib tab, search for Lit, and download it.
2. Enable it under Project → Project Settings → Plugins.

Manually

1. Download this repo (Code → Download ZIP, or git clone).
2. Copy the addons/lit folder into your project's addons/ folder.
3. Enable Lit under Project → Project Settings → Plugins (reload the project if asked).

Quickstart

1. Enable the plugin. Project → Project Settings → Plugins → turn on Lit. Reload the project if Godot asks.
2. Make it dark. Add a LitCanvasModulate node to your scene and set its color to something dark. Your world is now in shadow, waiting to be lit. (Use this instead of Godot's CanvasModulate, not alongside it.)
3. Let your art catch light. Either drop in a LitSprite2D (comes ready to go), or select existing Sprite2D / TileMapLayer / other 2D nodes and run Project → Tools → Make Selected Nodes Lit.
4. Add a light. Drop a LitPointLight2D over your art and watch it light up. Tweak color, energy, and range to taste.
5. Want shadows? On the light, tick Shadow Enabled. Then give the world something to block the light: add a LightOccluder2D to a sprite, or for tiles enable SDF Collision on your TileSet's occlusion layer.
6. Want a look? Add a LitPostProcess node and switch on bloom, color grade, CRT, or any of the other effects.

That's it — everything updates live in the editor as you build.

What you get

• Uncapped lights & shadows. No 15-light limit. Use as many as your scene needs.
• Three light types. Point, Directional (a sun), and Spot (a cone).
• Soft or hard shadows. One slider per light, from razor-sharp to feathery.
• Normal maps & specular, free. Reads them straight from your CanvasTexture — no wiring.
• Darkness & ambient. One LitCanvasModulate node sets the mood for the whole scene.
• Light masks. Make a light affect only the things you want it to.
• Negative lights. Flip a light to subtract to carve pools of extra darkness.
• Works on any 2D node. Sprites, tilemaps, polygons — if it draws, it can be lit.
• Live in the editor. See your lighting while you build, no need to hit play.
• 20+ post-processing effects on a single node: bloom, color grade, LUT presets, vignette, CRT, VHS, film grain, chromatic aberration, posterize, pixelate, halftone, dither, outline, halation, letterbox, lens distortion, light leaks, glitch, and a focus/blur-to-sharpen dial.

The nodes

Good to know

• A Lit-lit object is lit only by Lit; a normal object is lit only by Godot's built-in Light2D. The two systems live side by side, so you can convert a project piece by piece.
• For tilemaps to cast shadows, the TileSet's occlusion layer needs SDF Collision turned on (it's off by default).

Contributing

Lit is open source and we'd love the help. Found a bug, have an idea, or want to build out a feature? Open an issue or pull request right here on GitHub.

Want to talk an idea through first? The Discord is the quickest way to reach us.

License

Lit is free and open-source under the MIT License — use it in anything, commercial or not, no credit required. See the LICENSE file for the details.