AuthorTopic: [Feedback] Office mockup  (Read 5247 times)

Offline Zanorin

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Re: [Feedback] Office mockup

Reply #10 on: May 04, 2018, 06:46:34 am
Actually the contrast between a pixel art environment and "realistic" light effects is something I want to achieve on purpose, throughout the game all lightings are going to be that way (lamps, moonlight, light emanating from a computer screen...), I've talked about this with the people I'm making the game with and we all agree, so it's not gonna change :)
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Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: [Feedback] Office mockup

Reply #11 on: May 04, 2018, 08:56:39 am
depending on the program, I believe there are in fact ways to constrain light effects to the pixel grid, I know that Terraria does it if I remember right. might help to study those and see how they did that
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Offline eishiya

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Re: [Feedback] Office mockup

Reply #12 on: May 04, 2018, 02:23:21 pm
depending on the program, I believe there are in fact ways to constrain light effects to the pixel grid, I know that Terraria does it if I remember right. might help to study those and see how they did that
If both the game and lighting are rendered to a small texture at 1x zoom prior to be scaled up for display, that automatically constrains the effects to the pixel grid. If rendering to a smaller texture isn't an option (e.g. if the characters should be able to stand "between" pixels, or there are high-res rotations of sprites), then it's still possible - render just the light to a smaller texture, then scale that up for rendering to the final, zoomed in display.

Terraria constrains lighting to the tile grid. Instead of light being drawn as a bunch of pre-drawn overlays, it is dynamically calculated based on the distance (in whole tiles) of each tile from the light source. There are many ways to render this. The most performant is probably the same method as above, but scaled up by zoom*tileSize rather than just the zoom, so that each "pixel" of light covers a tile. In some engines it's also possible to give individual tiles a tint based on the calculated lighting.


Anyway, I agree with Xorceles that the soft lighting looks out of place. It also goes through the floor and walls, which makes the light look just pasted on rather than like it exists in the scene.
Don't shade using black/grey. The image will look much livelier if you have some hue in the ambient light (the ambient light is what gives shadows their colours). I also think it's best to render both light and shadow rather than just light or just shadow, so that the relatively neutral base art can be be given a nicely contrasting colour scheme by the lighting. This can all be done programmatically.

Offline Zanorin

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Re: [Feedback] Office mockup

Reply #13 on: May 04, 2018, 02:40:16 pm
Ok so our game is being created with RPG Maker, with which I'm not entirely familiar, and it may limit the range of what I can do in terms of "doing stuff programmatically".

Quote
It also goes through the floor and walls, which makes the light look just pasted on rather than like it exists in the scene.

Yup that's not intentional, I plan on fixing that later on :)

Quote
I also think it's best to render both light and shadow rather than just light or just shadow, so that the relatively neutral base art can be be given a nicely contrasting colour scheme by the lighting. This can all be done programmatically.

I'm sorry, but I don't think I understand what you mean at all ^^'
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Offline eishiya

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Re: [Feedback] Office mockup

Reply #14 on: May 04, 2018, 03:40:00 pm
By that last part, I mean instead of calculating just the shadows that darken the image, also calculate the light that lightens the image. Give the shadow pixels and light pixels different hues (e.g. blue shadows, yellow lights).

Here's an example. This image just has blue shadows applied. Looks better than grey already!


But here are the same blue shadows, plus yellow light:

I think this looks much more interesting, because it creates a nice warm/cool contrast.

(The blue shadows would probably look better a little darker, but hopefully the basic idea comes across.)

Offline Zanorin

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Re: [Feedback] Office mockup

Reply #15 on: May 04, 2018, 03:58:10 pm
Oh right I get it, I was planning on experimenting with hue-shifting later and I must say your example looks super cool *-* But now I wonder, does that warm light fit with a stark office environnement ? I'm certainly going to use those colors in the other levels, but I don't know if I should in this one.. ???
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Offline Gwennifer

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Re: [Feedback] Office mockup

Reply #16 on: May 04, 2018, 05:21:06 pm
For the texture on the wall, it might be more helpful to create the suggestion of texture with a few well-placed details of texture (like cross-hatching) rather than texturizing the whole wall. No matter how unobtrusive your wall texture is, you're still going to fall into the same problem of your wall looking sterile and empty. Your eye will tune out repeating patterns, so!

Offline eishiya

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Re: [Feedback] Office mockup

Reply #17 on: May 04, 2018, 08:01:24 pm
Oh right I get it, I was planning on experimenting with hue-shifting later and I must say your example looks super cool *-* But now I wonder, does that warm light fit with a stark office environnement ? I'm certainly going to use those colors in the other levels, but I don't know if I should in this one.. ???
The yellow light probably does look more warm and welcoming than you might want an offuce to look. You can achieve a bland look without going completely boring and grey, though! Keep the colours of the objects in the office constrained in hue and mostly dull, use a duller yellow for the light. You could even use a greenish colour instead of yellow if you want the office to look like it's using those headache-inducing fluorescent bulbs.

Here's an example using a less saturated blue, and a green colour for the light:

It's definitely duller and less pleasant, but it still looks more interesting than just using greys.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2018, 08:04:03 pm by eishiya »