MaverickFM
Pathfinder Games
This week, Guillaume has taken some time out of his hectic schedule to tell us what he has been up to with the game's lighting:
In a previous lighting dev blog, we talked about how the lighting will affect the gameplay of Traction Wars. This time, we are going deeper into the technology and show a practical example of our lighting setup system
Our Pegasus Bridge map has been the test bed for this feature because as it has the darkest night of the game which bring a lot of challenges.
Creating a very dark environment for a multiplayer game is a tricky balance where a lot of elements has to be taken into consideration like the HDR's eye adaptation system (temporary impairment of vision when the player moves suddenly between spaces of very different light levels) and even the brightness/gamma of the screen.
The end goal has been that someone with an incredibly bright screen should not have a massive competitive advantage over someone playing on a properly calibrated screen.
We recently completed the upgrade of our textures and materials to a physically accurate shading model (PBR). This not only improves the graphical fidelity but also make it much easier and quicker for us to illuminate the various areas.
To give you an example, before PBR it was not uncommon to make the textures used in indoors darker than they should be in order to simulate the lower amount of light inside buildings but now PBR assure a consistency with all surface types which means that we can use any objects in any lighting environment without having to manually tweak these objects to make them fit the lighting condition.
As a little treat for you, I managed to catch Guillaume for 5 minutes before he went back to work on the game, to ask a few questions:
That's all for this blog. Until our next update, you can find us on social media as well as on the official Discord channel.
In a previous lighting dev blog, we talked about how the lighting will affect the gameplay of Traction Wars. This time, we are going deeper into the technology and show a practical example of our lighting setup system
Our Pegasus Bridge map has been the test bed for this feature because as it has the darkest night of the game which bring a lot of challenges.
Creating a very dark environment for a multiplayer game is a tricky balance where a lot of elements has to be taken into consideration like the HDR's eye adaptation system (temporary impairment of vision when the player moves suddenly between spaces of very different light levels) and even the brightness/gamma of the screen.
The end goal has been that someone with an incredibly bright screen should not have a massive competitive advantage over someone playing on a properly calibrated screen.
We recently completed the upgrade of our textures and materials to a physically accurate shading model (PBR). This not only improves the graphical fidelity but also make it much easier and quicker for us to illuminate the various areas.
As a little treat for you, I managed to catch Guillaume for 5 minutes before he went back to work on the game, to ask a few questions:
1. What does your role involve?
The role of a Lighting Artist is very interesting because I am responsible for how the environments are lit and looks which have a big impact on not just the visuals but also the gameplay, the performances and a lot of other things. In fact, most of the time it's more technical than artistic.
And as Lead Artist, I keep track of the various assets that we need for the game, assign them to our amazing 3D Artists and finally I make sure that everything matches our quality standard (which is pretty high for this type of project!). So it's a lot of logistics but I also have the opportunity to work directly on the assets when necessary like with the recent upgrade of our textures and materials to PBR.
2. What is your favourite thing you have done so far in TW?
The destroyable lights sources. This is not only very cool but also adds a few strategic options, especially in indoor areas.
3. If there was anything you could do in Traction Wars, what would it be?
I am very excited about the prospect of everything related to vehicles and the gameplay associated with them. I feel there are opportunities to do something very special with the vehicles in this game but that would be for another time. Another chapter actually!
4. What is your favourite cookie?
The classic, chocolate chips cookie. Nothing beats it.
5. What do you think is the most important/most significant lighting tech used in TWs (apart from PBR)
It's hard to say, CRYENGINE has a lot of very advanced rendering/lighting features but I think the most significant one is the foundation of lighting system itself where everything is real time and is controllable with a very comprehensive tool. This allows us to make any change and see instantaneously the final result without having to wait for a lightmap to compile or things like that.
6. Will there be day/night cycles?
Traction Wars will feature two lighting conditions per map; day and night which will be selectable in the map rotation system by the admins of the game servers. So no dynamic day/night cycle in Chapter 1 but keep mind that when I say "day" this also include a lighting condition at dusk for instance so you can expect some variety.
The role of a Lighting Artist is very interesting because I am responsible for how the environments are lit and looks which have a big impact on not just the visuals but also the gameplay, the performances and a lot of other things. In fact, most of the time it's more technical than artistic.
And as Lead Artist, I keep track of the various assets that we need for the game, assign them to our amazing 3D Artists and finally I make sure that everything matches our quality standard (which is pretty high for this type of project!). So it's a lot of logistics but I also have the opportunity to work directly on the assets when necessary like with the recent upgrade of our textures and materials to PBR.
2. What is your favourite thing you have done so far in TW?
The destroyable lights sources. This is not only very cool but also adds a few strategic options, especially in indoor areas.
3. If there was anything you could do in Traction Wars, what would it be?
I am very excited about the prospect of everything related to vehicles and the gameplay associated with them. I feel there are opportunities to do something very special with the vehicles in this game but that would be for another time. Another chapter actually!
4. What is your favourite cookie?
The classic, chocolate chips cookie. Nothing beats it.
5. What do you think is the most important/most significant lighting tech used in TWs (apart from PBR)
It's hard to say, CRYENGINE has a lot of very advanced rendering/lighting features but I think the most significant one is the foundation of lighting system itself where everything is real time and is controllable with a very comprehensive tool. This allows us to make any change and see instantaneously the final result without having to wait for a lightmap to compile or things like that.
6. Will there be day/night cycles?
Traction Wars will feature two lighting conditions per map; day and night which will be selectable in the map rotation system by the admins of the game servers. So no dynamic day/night cycle in Chapter 1 but keep mind that when I say "day" this also include a lighting condition at dusk for instance so you can expect some variety.
That's all for this blog. Until our next update, you can find us on social media as well as on the official Discord channel.
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