weather effects

[.TakaM]

i was having a run around in golden sun TLA the other night just looking round the villages, got to one and it had these big sun ray effects, which I thought looked pretty cool, so I decided I'd make some for my tileset, i then made some mockups and showed a few people, got mixed feedback on them. so I thought it might pay to make a topic.
firstly, heres a mockup:

no effects:

(I did have some of my clouds in that I use in too many things, but it was too much)
what do you guys think of these effects? of course they would be a paralax layer moving at a different rate compared to the playing field, I personally think they look nice, especially in motion.
and in case you cant tell, the effects are pixelled.

so, I wanna know what you guys think of these effects (or effects like these in 2d games in general)
all references and examples are very welcome.

[Panda]

Unless it is a key feature, like in boktai, I would just restrict it to highlight special items or special places or something.
Personally - esp. from the mockups you showed me - I find those effects (semi transparent clouds and sun rays going accross the screen) rather distracting and annoying.
Rain and fog and storms and the like are alright, even really sunny weather, but I'd be against random weather effects added just because. I'd restrict it to water reflections if anything.
Again just my two cents.

[Rox]

It looks good, but I agree somewhat with Panda. If you have a REASON for having the effects, then it's all good. But if it's just spontaneous "this town is very sunny!" it might be distracting instead. Maybe if a particular town that is particularly splendid or something had it, it could be used to enhance the... rich, golden atmosphere in that town. It'd be pretty neat to have several different effects to use in different types of town, in fact. If one town has sad events going on, you could have, like, overlaying shadows of clouds floating by or something. Mmm... Butterflies and birds could also be used in the same way, to increase the beautiful peacefulness in one particularly peaceful town...

But again, if it doesn't have a reason to be there aside from "it looks good", I don't think it should be.

[.TakaM]

pixelnewb, I was wondering about having them hit the ground, but if I did that they shouldn't really be a paralax layer which would make them more distracting having to move exactly with the playing field.

panda and rox, makes sense, I don't think I'd want to use the rays to highlight items or something, and if I do use these I think it will only be in a few areas that emphasize the sunny feeling I want, much like forests having layers of fog, deserts warping the screen a little etc that you see in so many rpgs
perhaps they should be less strong, or perhaps fading in and out a little

[Akzidenz]

I think they look beautiful. Personally, I'm a big fan of pixel art that looks less like pixel art - if that makes any sense - and I think that the sunrays take it to that level. If they weren't static, I think they'd be perfect - maybe they could slowly move across the screen, as if they were actually shining through clouds?

I have this image in my head of the water flowing, the trees moving slowly with the wind, the sunrays moving across the ground. Stuff like that breathes so much life into pixels.

[AdamAtomic]

I think some of the GBA castlevania titles used these as well, but they used them a little bit differently.  I believe theirs tapered, which ended up looking pretty hot, but they also only used them in DARK areas - not in sunny areas.  They work a lot better as a moody, contrasting device than a "this place is EXTRA sunny".  I think the best way to show that your town is sunny is to up the contrast on your shadows, not your lights.

[Ryumaru]

i agree with the other people. these would look awesome in a deep forest as light through the leaves, however. THAT would look badass.

[progFX]

Firsly the mockup is very very nice, and if your having problems with making it look very bright out, possibly try a pixelated lensflare, usually seems to do the trick.

[gliding]

I think adam's comment is the one you  should look at closely. I totally agree- use them as mood setters and simply up contrast.

[ndchristie]

i think, if you are going to have weather, that there is first so much that can be done with palette changes that you havent explored.  then, once you have, look into things like animated rain or snow, but these are not necessary.  most platforms give you the option of cycling through tilesets, so i think it's worth making several different copies fo the same one, and using that to change lighting as necessary