Static Lighting Budget

There is an intentional limit on Static Lighting in Halo 4. If you go over $11,575 in Static Lighting Budget, the Static Lighting will start to work incorrectly.

Level 0: No shadows to render
If when starting a game (or going from Edit Mode to Player Mode), it does not go dark, you have no Static Objects to render Static Lighting with.

Level 1: Normal Shadows
If when starting a game (or going from Edit Mode to Player Mode), it does go dark, and shows "Generating Lighting. Please Wait...", the Map Variant is below $11,575 in SL Budget.

Level 1.5: Long Wait Time
If when starting a game (or going from Edit Mode to Player Mode), it shows "Generating Lighting." for a long time, the Map Variant is near $11,575 in SL Budget, but not over that limit.

Level 2: Soft Shadows
If you go over $11,575 in SL Budget, the Static Lighting will start to work differently. The more budget used, the closer distances each range of shadows will start at.

If when starting a game (or going from Edit Mode to Player Mode), the screen will go dark as if it was about to show the "Generating Lighting. Please Wait..." message, but the screen goes normal very quickly and does not show the message, your Variant is in Level 2 Shadows.

There are four ranges of shadow rendering with this.
 * 1) Objects in close range of you will have normal shadows.
 * 2) For Objects farther than a certain distance away, shadows will be replaced with the object being dark (or bright) when looked at. The more SLB used, the closer the distance the shadows will appear on the whole object.
 * 3) Objects farther away than that will look completely bright, regardless of it's brightness in the medium range.
 * 4) Finally, very far away Objects will have much lower quality textures.

Level 3: Buggy Shadows
If you go far above that value in SL Budget, shadows will look much more unrealistic than Level 2.

Level 4: Broken Shadows
Eventually, the SL Budget will be so high in value, shadows will not work at all.

Ravine

 * 1) Base 1
 * 2) Base 2, Left
 * 3) Base 2, Right
 * 4) Bridge Wall
 * 5) Catwalk 1
 * 6) Catwalk Lip
 * 7) Block, 4X4, Tall
 * 8) Dish
 * 9) Dish, Open
 * 10) Platform, Large
 * 11) Platform, XLarge
 * 12) Sniper Nest
 * 13) Walkway, Large
 * 14) Bunker, Round
 * 15) Tower, 3 Story
 * 16) Tower, Tall
 * 17) Room, Double
 * 18) Antenna, Satellite
 * 19) Brace, Tunnel
 * 20) Railing, Long
 * 21) Teleporter Frame
 * 22) Strut
 * 23) Large Walkway Cover
 * 24) Window, Coliseum
 * 25) Tunnel, Long
 * 26) Ramp, Circular, Small
 * 27) Ramp, Circular, Large

Impact

 * 1) Block, 4X4, Tall
 * 2) Dish
 * 3) Dish, Open
 * 4) Platform, Large
 * 5) Platform, XLarge
 * 6) Sniper Nest
 * 7) Walkway, Large
 * 8) Bunker, Round
 * 9) Tower, 3 Story
 * 10) Tower, Tall
 * 11) Room, Double
 * 12) Antenna, Satellite
 * 13) Brace, Tunnel
 * 14) Railing, Long
 * 15) Teleporter Frame
 * 16) Strut
 * 17) Large Walkway Cover
 * 18) Window, Coliseum
 * 19) Tunnel, Long
 * 20) Ramp, Circular, Small
 * 21) Ramp, Circular, Large

Erosion

 * 1) Block, 4X4, Short
 * 2) Platform, Large
 * 3) Platform, XLarge
 * 4) Cylinder, Large
 * 5) Sniper Nest
 * 6) Staircase
 * 7) Walkway, Large
 * 8) Bunker, Small, Covered
 * 9) Bunker, Round
 * 10) Tower, 2 Story
 * 11) Tower, 3 Story
 * 12) Tower, Tall
 * 13) Tower, 2 Story
 * 14) Room, Double
 * 15) Room, Triple
 * 16) Brace
 * 17) Brace, Large
 * 18) Brace, Tunnel
 * 19) Railing, Long
 * 20) Teleporter Frame
 * 21) Strut
 * 22) Large Walkway Cover
 * 23) Wall, Coliseum
 * 24) Window, Coliseum
 * 25) Ramp, Circular, Small
 * 26) Ramp, Circular, Large