LED Display Basics

A real LED display is made from many small light sources arranged in a grid. Each light source is usually called an LED, diode, emitter, or pixel. LED Studio uses the word emitter because the package is simulating the visible light point, not just storing an image pixel.

Starting from the physical model matters: pitch, emitters, cabinets, seams, viewing distance, and brightness determine whether a display feels like installed hardware instead of a flat texture placed on a mesh.

Emitters, Pixels, and Logical Resolution

The logical resolution is the number of emitters the board contains, for example 192 by 108. This resolution is not the same thing as the final screen resolution of your game view. LED Studio first composes all text, images, video, UI, scores, and timers into this emitter grid. The LED shader then presents the grid on a mesh so it looks like a physical LED surface.

Beginner term - If a board has a logical resolution of 512 by 16, it behaves like a long ribbon display with 512 emitters across and 16 emitters high.

Pitch and Viewing Distance

Pitch is the physical distance between adjacent emitters, measured in millimeters. A P2.5 display has a 2.5 mm pitch, while a P10 display has a 10 mm pitch. Smaller pitch means more detail at close range. Larger pitch looks more visibly pixelated and is usually viewed from farther away.

Pitch	Typical feel	Good use
P2.5 / P3.9	Fine detail, readable closer to camera	Stage backdrops, trade show walls, hero screens
P5 / P6	Balanced detail and visible LED character	Scoreboards, venue screens, medium-distance signage
P10 / P16 / P20	Chunky, obvious diode pattern	Large outdoor boards, stylized retro displays, distant ribbons

Cabinets, Seams, and Bezels

Large LED walls are normally assembled from rectangular cabinet modules. The small gaps between cabinets create seams, and the dark structure around each module creates a bezel effect. LED Studio can draw these seams from the cabinet grid settings. For clean results, choose cabinet columns and rows that divide evenly into the logical resolution.

Cabinet Layout can also divide one board into a honeycomb of pointy-top or flat-top hexagonal panels. Set Panels Across to choose the panel size; the panel height and row count follow from that size. Edge Panels keeps or removes panels that are cut by the outer board boundary. Seam Width and Bezel Darkening still control the separation between panels.

A hexagonal cabinet layout changes the panel pattern within a board. A hexagon topology changes the outline of the board itself, and a Spatial board group combines separate physical boards into one display. In all three cases, the logical emitters remain on the rectangular pixel grid used by the content sources.

Brightness, Bloom, and Close-Up Detail

Real LED displays are bright light sources. In Unity, that usually means using HDR brightness and bloom in the camera or render pipeline. LED Studio also simulates emitter fill ratio, falloff, brightness response, and optional close-up diode lens detail. At far distances, the board can blend toward a smoother image to reduce distracting aliasing and moire artifacts.

Close-Up and Far Blend distances are calibrated to a reference camera with a 60-degree vertical field of view at 1080p. The shader also follows emitter screen size, so telephoto and higher-resolution views retain detail farther away. Near, far, and subpixel output preserve the same average emitter brightness; diffusion spreads that light around each diode, and distant content is averaged to reduce aliasing. Venue Contrast keeps saturated colors and HDR highlights while strengthening the image contrast.

Edit the board controller or its assigned profile for persistent settings. The LED Board material inspector groups named controls for emitter appearance, presentation, content and layout, viewing distance, defects, and advanced rendering. A managed board supplies its content and owned values to a material clone, so changes made only to that clone can be overwritten by the controller or profile.

Emitter close-up: visible diode pitch, fill, and brightness falloff.

Emitter shape library: circle, block, hex, LCD