Ambient lighting underneath shed / pavilion?

Hey everyone -

I’m constructing an amusement park scene. One of the attraction platforms is basically a big shed with open sides, kind of like a picnic pavilion. See attached image.

The scene is otherwise the default “blank project” setup, using a sky light and a directional light. What do I need to do to get more ambient fill light inside the platform area? I’m going for photorealism and it appears to be too dark in there, especially considering that the platform is open on all sides.

I’m familiar with lightmass portals but too many of them will slow my build times down, right? I tried rectangular lights as portal lights like I would in, say, V-Ray, but they don’t seem to achieve the effect I want and the light sources are noticeable even in game mode. Is it just an instance of shadows being too strong?

Thanks in advance!

Hi!

Could you show us your lightmass settings?
In a scene like this you don’t need portals! Portals for interior scenes with exterior lighting…
I guess you don’t have enough Skylight bounces… Also use a HDRI for the Skylihgt: you’ll get better/more realistic lighting results!
Also use a Postprocess volume and there you can tune a LOT of your “ambient” lighting by the exposure settings!