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Experimenting with lightmaps

Bah

Arcane
Joined
Oct 6, 2006
Messages
2,946
Location
Northwest American Republic
Personally, the lighting was never a big issue for me in any of the original images you posted in the Style & Atmosphere thread. But this definitely looks better.

I definitely like that the room feels darkner now. The stone isn't so bright and cheery, and the wood floors look darker. I didn't notice until a 2nd picture comparison, but the added drawings on the walls and documents on tables/shelves helps as well.
 

suibhne

Erudite
Joined
Aug 21, 2003
Messages
1,951
Location
Chicago
I like it a lot better, but I can't put my finger on why.

Also, that conversation needs to recur at least every 2 minutes or so, throughout your entire game, in order to have any credibility at all.
 

MacBone

Scholar
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
554
Location
Brutopia
I like the lighting better in the new picture. The previous shot had more of a washed-out look, and the shadows look a lot better now. I like the addition of the charts on the walls and the additional documents on the tables. Looks like more work gets done in the new shot.
 

Hazelnut

Erudite
Joined
Dec 17, 2002
Messages
1,490
Location
UK
Looks really good - you've also added some clutter, which also looks great, but is kinda marginal to my positive opinion compared to the light map changes.

I think that the textures used on the top of the walls where they're cut off now look really out of place, being so bright. Might be an idea to use a different texture for wall cuts if it's easy to do. (if it's difficult or time consuming then I don't give a shit about it.. k ;-))
 

Astromarine

Erudite
Joined
Jan 21, 2003
Messages
2,213
Location
Switzerland
much, much better. As a bonus, the fact that the walls are either brighter or darker than the original color, but hardly ever that color itself, makes the UI as a whole better, because the previous wall color was too similar to the UI itself, making the whole thing quite washed out.
 

EvoG

Erudite
Joined
Mar 25, 2003
Messages
1,424
Location
Chicago
There you go! :D

Now thats headed in the right direction. If you're continuing to test, might I suggest, instead of doing a sky light over the 'interior', close the room up (roof and all), and specify both a direct light source for the Sun (Directional 1.25 - 1.5 light multiplier) along with a slightly blue tinted sky (Skylight 0.25 - 0.4 multiplier). This allows the light to bleed in from the windows, doors and other openings realistically; here's a great example from The Witcher. If you're going to spend the time baking down lightmaps at all, at this point there's no real reason to not take it all the way.


Oh, and since you're rendering the interiors separate from the exteriors, I'd go ahead and use Radiosity rather than Lighttracer, as light dispersion/bounce is far superior with far less effort. In other words, Lighttracer works great for outdoor shots, Radiosity better of indoor. Then there's always Mental Ray I suppose, but thats a bit more complicated. :)


Cheers
 

galsiah

Erudite
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
1,613
Location
Montreal
Much better.
The extra clutter is a definite improvement, the place looks more lived in (good to see the desk looking used). Also the lighting is a big improvement - particularly having the edges of walls/floors etc darker makes things look much less artificial.

The only part which looks a little odd is the people. They look rather bright/shiny (apart from the metal) to me compared to the surroundings. I'm not sure whether it'd be a question of changing the colours/materials/lighting, or if "fixing" this would have them look odd in other situations. Just thought I'd point it out.

Also, have you considered altering the lighting of the tops of the walls? [e.g. so that they look consistent with the upper portion of the sides] They're rather bright at present, considering that they're probably something you aren't aiming to emphasize. If it's easy to darken them a little, I think it would help. At the moment, they attract my attention when there's no good reason for them to.
 

Veracity

Liturgist
Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
155
Substantial improvement on the earlier version. Can't rate importance of the extra clutter vs light/shade changes without seeing them separately - not that I'm suggesting this'd be a worthwhile exercise, I assume they both contribute and doubt the ratio matters unless time/cost estimates require picking one over the other.
 

Anaglyph

Novice
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
75
Add another "much improved". Looks good.

I agree with Hazelnut though that the tops of the walls are a bit distracting now. Not a huge deal, but worth fixing if it isn't too much trouble. Personally, I think it's better to approach that with a dull neutral texture that's independant of whatever texture a wall happens to have, but again, not a huge deal.

It's also nice to see you're finally getting some quality dialogue into the game.
 

The_Pope

Scholar
Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
844
Very nice. Not sure if I'd put NEXT GEN GRAFIX on the back of the box yet, but it does look a good bit better.

PS: I'm not really a fan of the cheesy cartoon hammers. Real warhammers were pretty small.
 

xemous

Arcane
Joined
Aug 6, 2004
Messages
1,107
Location
AU
Fix the character models and armour (they're so fat and clunky) and get some shadows and you're good to go on the graphics end.
 

hiciacit

Liturgist
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
406
Location
I've been there
It looks a lot better then the previous ones. But I'd go with what EvoG said. Baking the light maps with an exterior light source could do a lot for the overall mood.

I really dig the overhead comments btw (and I don't mean just the content)!
 
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
1,585
Location
Galway
The interiors look less like striplit monastic cells now, I didn't even notice that was the case until you fixed it. A definite improvement.
 

spacemoose

Erudite
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
9,632
Location
california
I see that the dudes are not casting shadows. is this because you are "baking light maps" for the interiors (as the more knowledgable here say), with no dynamic light sources for the interiors? I'm just guessing here since I know next to nothing about graphic engines - but the shots outside have people casting shadows, so I'm assuming there is a dynamic light source for the exterior, but not for the interior.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Yep. Currently, objects don't cast shadows on other objects. In other words, no dynamic shadows indoor. Works fine outdoor though.
 

DarkSign

Erudite
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
3,910
Location
Shepardizing caselaw with the F5 button.
After looking at it again, the light source seems uber-directional...as in...from every direction at the same time. The shadows under the desk should be more pronounced.

Of course that takes us into worrying overly much about the grafix...but since that's the point of this thread, I thought Id note it.
 

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