Plugins + Scripts HK SceneControl

Studio portrait lighting​

• Lights → Manage Templates: open ThreePoint, choose the person as the Apply To Atom target, click Apply to Atom.
• Lights → Global Settings: set Light Warmth warmer or cooler to taste.
• Fine-tune any single light via Manage Lights → Edit Light.

Handheld / VR working light​

• Lights → Add Camera Lights: set Intensity, Range, Angle and Light Count, then Add Camera Lights.
• Result: lights that emit forward from your viewpoint and follow the camera.

Music-reactive light show​

• Add a light, then Manage Lights → Edit Light → Effects → Strobe.
• Turn on Link to Audio, choose an Audio Type (RMS for loudness, Amplitude for peaks) and set Audio Sensitivity.
• Result: lights that pulse to the beat of scene audio.

VR passthrough scene​

• Scene Control → Passthrough Control: set a Background Color to match your room.
• Add atoms as Hidden (invisible) or Change Material (painted the background colour) so they blend into the passthrough feed.

• Save All Data — saves all plugin data. Trigger this before saving the scene so your changes are included. This is deliberate, to avoid unintended overwrites. Only shows up once you've saved the scene at least once; before that, a note reminds you to save the scene first.
• Restore Scene Save — re-reads this scene's own saved plugin data from disk and re-applies it, overwriting your current settings. Useful if you've re-added the plugin mid-session (for example, after updating it) and want your saved settings back, since the automatic restore only fires on a scene load. Asks you to confirm first; Cancel leaves everything as-is. If nothing has been saved for this scene yet, nothing happens — that's normal for a brand-new scene.
• Load from Scene Save — opens a file browser so you can pick any saved scene and pull its plugin data into the current one, instead of only the currently loaded scene. If that scene has no matching data, you'll see a message saying so. If it has one or more matches (for example, several saved presets), you'll get a button for each one to choose from, plus Cancel. Asks you to confirm before overwriting your current settings.

• You'll see this as a small .hk file sitting next to your scene file, named after the scene.
• The same save format powers Templates (see Lights → Manage Templates below) — a template is just this same kind of save, given a name so you can re-apply it later. Templates are stored as .hkt files under Saves/PluginData/HoringKoning/ instead of next to the scene.
• Existing scenes upgrade to the new companion file automatically the first time you save them. There's nothing to configure and nothing you need to do.

• Each major component (e.g. HK Scene Control) has an on/off toggle.
• Disabling a component stops it running without removing its data.

• Ignore Hidden Atoms — hidden atoms are excluded from all atom-selection dropdowns.
• Ignore Camera Rig — the camera rig atom is excluded from all atom-selection dropdowns.
• Ignore Core Control — the CoreControl atom is excluded from all atom-selection dropdowns.

• Light Warmth — colour temperature (Kelvin) applied to all lights using the global colour (1,000 K = very warm/orange, 10,000 K = very cool/blue). Default 6,500 K.
• Ambient Color — colour picker for Unity's ambient/environment light, affecting the scene's base illumination.

• Light Group — lights are grouped by the atom or camera they're linked to; select a group to filter the list.
• Selected Light — choose an individual light; it becomes the target for Edit, Copy and Remove.
• Edit Light — opens Configure Light for the selected light.
• Copy Light — duplicates the selected light with all its settings, added immediately.
• Remove Light — permanently removes the selected light. Asks you to confirm first.
• Visualize Lights — renders debug gizmos in the scene for Directional, Point, Spot, or All Lights (works on all Unity lights, not just this plugin's). While active, a single Hide Light Visualization button replaces the options.
• Remove All Lights from Scene — removes every Unity light and light atom in the entire scene, not just this plugin's. Asks you to confirm first; cannot be undone without reloading the scene.

• Relative Object — dropdown of all atoms; the new light tethers to the selected atom by default.
• Add Custom Light — creates a new Spot light linked to the chosen atom, with default settings you can fully configure in Configure Light. It can emit from or target the atom depending on your Emit From Target setting.
• Add Custom Light By Path — opens an object explorer to anchor the light to any transform in the scene hierarchy. Drill from root objects into children to find a sub-object (bone, prop child, environment piece) that isn't a top-level atom. The full path (e.g. RootObject/ChildObject/SubObject) is saved and resolved at creation.
• Add Camera Light — creates a new Spot light that emits from and follows the main camera; no atom selection needed.

• Relative Object — the atom that becomes the target for all lights in the rig.
• Place around (Custom Rig) — Intensity (0.01–1), Range (0.01–25, expandable), Angle (1°–180°), Light Count (1–255 lights placed evenly around the atom).
• Color — Overwrite Global Color gives the whole rig its own colour via a picker (once set, Clear Custom Color returns it to the global warmth).
• Add Atom Lights — creates the custom rig using the values above.

• Intensity — brightness of each light (0.01–1).
• Range — how far each light reaches (0.01–25).
• Angle — spot angle for each light (1°–180°).
• Light Count — number of lights around the camera viewport (1–255).
• Color — Overwrite Global Color gives the whole rig its own colour via a picker (once set, Clear Custom Color returns it to the global warmth).
• Add Camera Lights — creates the rig using the settings above.

• One checkbox per group defined in Light Groups below — check a group to add this light to it, uncheck to remove it. A light can belong to any number of groups, or none.

• Visualize — show/hide a visual of the light while editing, so you can see where it points and spreads.
• Save & Close — saves changes and exits the editor.
• Light Type — Spot (focused beam), Directional (parallel light like sunlight), or Point (spreads in all directions). Changing the type shows/hides the relevant settings below.
• On / Off — turn the light on or off.

• Intensity — brightness (0 = off, 8 = very bright).
• Range — how far the light reaches before fading (Spot and Point only; 0 barely reaches, 25 reaches far). Directional lights don't use range.
• Angle — beam width for Spot lights only (1° very narrow, 180° very wide).

• Rotation — aim the light with X, Y, Z (each -6 to +6 for fine control) and W (rotation quaternion component). Used for Spot and Directional lights.
• Position (or Position Offset) — X, Y, Z placement (each -25 to +25). For Static Lights this is an exact scene position; for offset lights it's relative to the linked atom or camera.
• Emit From Target — ON: the light emits from the atom's centre and follows it; OFF: it emits from a fixed offset. Not available for Camera Lights.
• Static Light — locks the light at a fixed scene position (absolute world coordinates), useful for background lighting that doesn't move. The position range becomes expandable, and enabling it disables Emit From Target.

• Overwrite Global Color — opens a colour picker to give this light its own colour (great for accent lights).
• Custom Color Settings — the picker panel; the light updates live. Clear Custom Color returns it to the global warmth.

• Shadow Type — Hard (crisp edges), Soft (blurred, cinematic), or None (no shadows, less performance cost).
• Shadow Resolution — clarity of shadows (256–16384). Higher is crisper but costlier; start at 1024.
• Strength — how dark shadows appear (0 barely visible, 1 fully black).
• Bias — fixes shadow flickering/artifacts (nudge 0.0001–0.001 if shadows look choppy).
• Normal Bias — Directional lights only; prevents warped/twisted shadows.
• Near Pane — closest distance from which shadows render; rarely needs changing.

• Speed — how fast it pulses (0 none, 5 very fast).
• Min Intensity — dimmest point of the pulse.
• Max Intensity — brightest point (must exceed Min).

• Speed — how fast it flickers (0 none, 5 very rapid).
• Intensity Variance — how much brightness varies (0 subtle, 1 extreme).

• Link to Audio — ON: pulses to the beat; OFF: fixed timer.
• Time-Based (when not linked) — Interval (how often it blinks; 0 continuous, 5 very slow) and Delay (offset so lights don't strobe simultaneously).
• Audio-Linked — Audio Sensitivity (the light switches on when the chosen audio value exceeds this), Audio Type (RMS overall loudness / Amplitude peak spikes), Amplitude Type (Rectangular, Triangle, Hamming/Hanning/Blackman/BlackmanHarris response shapes), and two read-only Audio Displays (Root Mean Square and Max Amplitude, 0–1).

• Combine effects for complex animation (e.g. pulse + flicker for a candle).
• Use audio-linked strobe with music for synchronised light shows.
• Lower speeds read as more natural, higher as more dramatic.
• Use Visualize while editing to see changes in real time.

• Create New Template — opens Create Template to build a new one from lights already in the scene.
• Templates — your own saved rigs, listed by name.
• Built-in Templates — the rigs that ship with the plugin: ThreePoint, Sunrise, Morning, HighNoon, Afternoon, Sunset, Moonlight, CandleLight, Cyberpunk.
• Click any template's name to open Configure Template.

• Apply To Atom — dropdown of atoms; choose the one to light.
• Color Shift — Hue Shift (-180° to 180°), Saturation Shift and Value Shift (both -1 to 1) shift every light in the template's colours together, keeping their relative hues — handy for retinting a whole rig (e.g. warmer sunset, cooler moonlight) without editing each light. Leave all three at 0 to use the template's original colours.
• Apply to Atom — adds the template's lights to the chosen atom, with any colour shift baked in. The screen stays open, so you can pick another atom and apply the same template again without going back.
• Back — returns to Manage Templates.
• Delete Template (your own templates only) — permanently removes the template. Built-in templates can't be deleted. Asks you to confirm first.

• Relative Object — pick the atom, camera or custom-path group whose lights you want to pull from.
• Light — pick a single light from that group.
• Add Light — stages the selected light into the draft.
• Add All From Object — stages every light targeting the selected Relative Object at once.
• Template Lights — the draft list; each entry has its own Remove button.
• Template Name — name the template, then click Save Template. Saving over an existing template name asks you to confirm before it's overwritten.
• Clear List — empties the draft without saving.
• Back — returns to Manage Templates, discarding an unsaved draft.

• Name — type a name and click Add Group to create a new, empty group.
• Click any existing group's name to open Configure Light Group.

• Name — rename the group; auto-adjusted if it collides with another group's name.
• Member Lights — read-only list of lights currently in this group. Add or remove lights from the Configure Light screen's Light Groups checkboxes, not here.
• Back — returns to Light Groups.
• Delete Group — permanently deletes the group and removes it from every member light. Asks you to confirm first.

• Show dock — turn the dock on or off. It can also be toggled from its own always-visible show/hide button, which keeps this checkbox in sync.
• Desktop scale / width / height — size of the dock when docked to the screen edge on desktop. Ignored in VR.
• Hand — which VR hand the dock attaches to. Ignored on desktop, which always docks to the screen's right edge.
• Offset (cm) — how far the dock sits from your hand along its forward axis.
• Angle (deg) — rotates the dock around your hand for a comfortable viewing angle.
• VR scale / width / height — size of the dock in VR. Ignored on desktop.

• Background Color — full HSV picker for the main camera's background; the reference colour when atoms are set to passthrough material or hidden. Match it to your real-world environment.
• Quick Color Presets — Blue, Green (green-screen workflows), Magenta.
• Passthrough Atoms — dropdown of atoms not yet assigned a passthrough mode; once added, an atom appears in the removal list below.
• Update Renderers — re-applies the current background colour to all atoms already in the passthrough list (use after changing the Background Color).
• Add as Hidden — hides the selected atom by disabling its material renderers; it stays in the scene but is invisible (no material replacement).
• Change Material — replaces the selected atom's materials with a solid colour matching the background; useful when geometry must pass through where it overlaps a non-passthrough object. Works on Person atoms too: the whole body is painted a flat, unlit colour that a passthrough or mixed-reality compositor can key out cleanly.
• Removing Passthrough Atoms — each atom shows a Remove button labelled with its name and mode; asks you to confirm first. Removing a Material-replaced atom restores its renderer (a scene reload may be needed for full restoration); removing a Renderer-hidden atom makes it visible again immediately.

Note: Hidden hides the atom's material; Material sets the atom's material to the passthrough colour.

Click to expand...

Person atoms are supported. Change Material applies a custom chroma skin material, rendering the whole character as one flat, unlit colour — ideal for keying out in VR passthrough or mixed-reality capture. Match the Background Color to your compositor's key colour.

Click to expand...

• Name — type a name and click Add Group to create a new, empty group.
• Click any existing group's name (with its entry count) to open Configure Group.

• Name — rename the group; auto-adjusted if it collides with another group's name.
• Entries — one row per linked atom/animation pair, each with its own Remove Entry button (asks you to confirm first).
• Add Entry — Atom (which atom to drive), then a Plugin dropdown (the Timeline instances on that atom — an atom can host more than one, animating different parts), then a Clip dropdown of that instance's available animations. Clip choices also include any Timeline animation-group name suffixed with "/*", which picks a random matching clip fresh every time the group plays.
• Back — returns to Animation Groups.
• Delete Group — permanently deletes the group. Asks you to confirm first.

• Name — type a name and click Add Group to create a new, empty group.
• Click any existing group's name (with its entry count) to open Configure Group.

• Name — rename the group; auto-adjusted if it collides with another group's name.
• Entries — one row per linked atom/preset-category pair, each with its own Remove Entry button (asks you to confirm first).
• Add Entry — Atom (which atom to preset), then Preset (which of that atom's preset categories — Appearance, General, Pose, Plugin, Hair, Clothing, Skin for a Person; a single "Preset" for most other atom types), then Browse for Preset File... to pick the .vap file.
• Back — returns to Preset Groups.
• Delete Group — permanently deletes the group. Asks you to confirm first.

• Name — type a name and click Add Group to create a new, empty group.
• Click any existing group's name (with its member count) to open Configure Collider Group.

• Name — rename the group; auto-adjusted if it collides with another group's name.
• Member Atoms — each with its own Remove button (asks you to confirm first). Removing an atom restores normal collision between it and the rest of the group immediately, no reload needed.
• Add Member — pick an atom not already in the group and click Add to Group. Every pair of member atoms stops colliding with each other as soon as they're both in the group.
• Back — returns to Collider Groups.
• Delete Group — permanently deletes the group and restores normal collision between all its former members. Asks you to confirm first.

• Light Warmth (Float, 1,000–10,000) — sets the global colour-temperature baseline.
• Ambient Color (Colour) — sets the scene's ambient/environment light colour.
• Light Template (String Chooser) — selects a built-in or your own saved lighting template by name; combine with Apply Light Template To Atom to place it. Reading its choice list also gives you every template name.
• Apply Light Template To Atom (String Chooser, choices = atom names) — applies the template last selected via Light Template to the chosen atom.
• Remove Light (String Chooser, choices = current light names) — removes the named light. Unlike the Remove Light menu button, calling this via a trigger skips the confirmation dialog and removes it immediately.
• Remove All Lights From Scene (Action) — removes every light in the scene, the same as the menu button. Calling this via a trigger skips the confirmation dialog and removes them immediately.
• HK Integration Version (read-only String) — reports the plugin's version, for other plugins that want to detect it's present. Most users never need this.

• A template added lights in the wrong place. Applying a template adds the rig to whichever atom is selected in Apply To Atom — make sure that's the right atom before clicking Apply to Atom, then fine-tune via Manage Lights → Edit Light.
• Audio-linked strobe isn't reacting. Lower the Audio Sensitivity and check the read-only RMS / Max Amplitude displays are moving with the audio.
• A directional light has no range or shadow options. That's expected — directional lights light everything and don't use Range; some shadow settings don't apply to them.
• A person isn't keying out cleanly in passthrough. Use Change Material (not Add as Hidden) on the Person atom — it paints the body a flat, unlit chroma colour. Match the Background Color to your compositor's key colour (the Green or Magenta presets make clean keys).
• "Remove All Lights" took out lights I didn't create. That action clears every light in the scene by design; reload the scene to restore them.
• My changes weren't saved with the scene. Click Save All Data in Data Store before saving the scene.
• I re-added the plugin (e.g. after an update) and my settings are gone. Click Restore Scene Save in Data Store to reload this scene's saved data — the automatic restore only fires on a scene load, not when the plugin is re-added mid-session.
• I don't see the play dock. Open Scene Control → Custom UI Dock and check Show dock is on. In VR, check the dock isn't tucked onto the back of your hand (that's the "hidden" pose) and try adjusting Offset/Angle.
• Only one animation group in my sub-scene plays automatically. That's expected — applying a sub-scene auto-plays only its first listed animation group. Trigger the rest by hand from the dock's Animations screen as the scene progresses.
• Switching a sub-scene turned off lights I wanted to keep on. Sub-scene light switching is exclusive by design — applying one turns on its own light groups and off every other defined light group. Lights that aren't in any group are never touched, so leave a light ungrouped if it should always stay as-is.
• A light group's Toggle button turned lights on that I'd turned off individually. Toggle inverts every member's current on/off state rather than forcing them all the same way — if members already differ, pressing it again won't restore the exact previous mix.