GR#200 - Factory - Background Lighting

[looaks]

You read my mind! I was busy coding the lights system in the game and that is an actual (crude) screenshot:

(the lights profiles are hand made and your link really comes in help)

btw thank for tweet about this post, i appreciated

[looaks]

here's an actual screenshot from the game, thank you guys

[astraldata]

It's really really dark -- you can barely see where you're walking.

Even with the lights, you really need to brighten the floor a bit like in Tim's edit to account for perspective and this would give you a chance to brighten the floors a little.

The pipes also need to cast some shadows on the wall now.

[looaks]

This an actual screenshot I can easily increase the ambient light of the scene. I should see it on different monitors.
I added some shadows on the pipes but maybe it's too dark to see  them I also think I'm going to reduce the size of the pipes they feel enormous in game.
I will address readability, even though playing full screen It's a different feel.
Luckily it's a WIP!

[Blobber]

It looks really good - very impressive stuff. I'd just suggest you take another look at Tim's edit, and contrast with this latest version that you did - Tim's edit is far superior. In fact, his edit looks gorgeous - I'd probably buy that game As was said above, the floors look too dark and washed out.

[Mathias]

. . .
Bonus comparison shot :

. . .

Impressive result.

I fully inspected your PSD. Clever technique with the combination curves adjustments.
Do you think your Photoshop end-result is 100% possible in his game? I'm curious how feasible you really consider that to be.

Thanks for the tip on IES lighting. I was unfamiliar with the term, before.

[tim]

It is 100% possible ingame, and the proof is that we're actually doing it ourself for our game. And guess what, it's even far better than that.
I mean neon reflections on the puddles, cars lighting the buildings when passing by, huge ads screens that actually light the surrounding correctly, etc… I agree it requires a fair bit of care, effort, & attention, but the end result is totally worth it to me, it can really make people go from "cool" to "AWESOME TAKE MY MONEY". And this is what we want, as game developers, I guess ? A better quality and a great selling point ?

However for a true dynamic solution, and not just static lights, you need some kind of normal mapping specially tailored for a pixel art render. The only public solution right now, if you don't code your own, is to use SpriteLamp.

http://snakehillgames.com/spritelamp/

[Mathias]

I was hoping you'd say yes.
Sounds great. I agree - the setup is worth it.

And oh yeah, I'm very familiar with Spritelamp. Great program. Though, I have yet to use it.


Are there any public gameplay videos or screenshots of your WIP game thus far? I'd like to see your working examples, if possible.

[tim]

I don't want to steal the topic 
I will show things in the appropriate topic of the secret section. Not yet though, because we're still figuring out a lot and many aspects of the graphics are not working yet (parallax, crowd, aerial car traffic simulation, rain simulation, etc), and I want maximum impact of everything I show. What will be interesting is not the individual particular technologies but the overall picture. The combined result should be a lot greater than sum of its parts, just like I learned while directing videos & visual effects.