I want the game to look like this!

(tokamak) #1

I hate Terminal, it’s the ugliest map in the game

But this looks awesome!

There’s this high contrast and low saturation. It’s beautiful. In my game it looks washed out and yellowish but woa, this is like incredible.

(RasteRayzeR) #2

As I suggested in another thread, the game needs a bigger shadow density to reinforce the impact of the shadows and a softglow filter above to boost the highlights. With this you can create a stronger contrast and the game feels really better.

I’ve been doing this in the frag movie I’m attempting to edit for the outro and god damn this is not the same game anymore.

(Phandy) #3

[QUOTE=RasteRayzeR;508441]As I suggested in another thread, the game needs a bigger shadow density to reinforce the impact of the shadows and a softglow filter above to boost the highlights. With this you can create a stronger contrast and the game feels really better.

I’ve been doing this in the frag movie I’m attempting to edit for the outro and god damn this is not the same game anymore.[/QUOTE]

Interesting, I would love to see what you mean by this, (got a few pics of your video?). The problem you can encounter with darkening shadows is that characters change a lot when passing through dark/light areas. ie. A light skin character in the shadow, now looks like a dark skin character in the light, value-wise. And the obvious problems of people finding dark spots to hide in.

Tokamak - This is always our goal, its a good example concept of what we aim for. Just takes a lot of time to tweak everything, especially on the older maps. We are constantly balancing lighting and textures to achieve this, so hopefully you should see little changes every patch as we go for this. This is something the art team is actively working towards. Visibility and clarity in the maps is a big deal for us.

Sidenote - Something that would actively help us out is if you guys ever find specific spots where you think visibility is very bad, because of lighting or textures. You should post a screenshot up and it might be something specific we can do. There were already a few in the character visibility thread that helped identify problems.

(Mustang) #4

What about PixelTwitch’s suggestion of dynamically adjusting player “brightness” levels depending on their background/surroundings/location.

(RasteRayzeR) #5

Might be an FPS eater to do that … not sure but it would probably require probing the level of light reaching the merc and then compute a gradient of brightness. Could be done but I fear that people become glowing balls in tunnels and such lol.

(RasteRayzeR) #6

[QUOTE=Phandy;508458]Interesting, I would love to see what you mean by this, (got a few pics of your video?). The problem you can encounter with darkening shadows is that characters change a lot when passing through dark/light areas. ie. A light skin character in the shadow, now looks like a dark skin character in the light, value-wise. And the obvious problems of people finding dark spots to hide in.
[/QUOTE]

Here are two examples. The first one shows how the details are highlighted (like the inside of the container) and the second one shows hard contrasts between light and shadows.

Clipboard01.jpg1166×654 132 KB

Clipboard02.jpg1162×655 72 KB

Dark areas are a problem but in DB I think what is really disturbing me is the range of colors used in the levels: they are variations of grey. Globally I think all we need is a wider difference between the colors in the levels and very visible ones to show the way to go.

EDIT: maybe going a bit more saturated is the key

(tokamak) #7

It’s not just the shadows in that image. There also seems to be less atmospheric effects going on. There’s definitely a different kind of weather going on.

And of course you guys have already tried different settings but to an outsider it would seem that people are more easier to identify in that screenshot than currently in-game.

I’d even wager that having a shadowy grid projected from above makes it easier to spot people as they move from light to dark and back again.

(tokamak) #8

This is what the game currently looks like:

Terminal 1.jpg1100×688 716 KB

This is what I’d prefer:

Terminal 4.jpg1100×688 748 KB

(Seanza) #9

[QUOTE=tokamak;508486]This is what the game currently looks like:

Terminal 1.jpg1100×688 716 KB

This is what I’d prefer:

Terminal 4.jpg1100×688 748 KB

[/QUOTE]

qft :slight_smile:

(davidemo89) #10

[QUOTE=RasteRayzeR;508469]Here are two examples. The first one shows how the details are highlighted (like the inside of the container) and the second one shows hard contrasts between light and shadows.

Clipboard01.jpg1166×654 132 KB

Clipboard02.jpg1162×655 72 KB

Dark areas are a problem but in DB I think what is really disturbing me is the range of colors used in the levels: they are variations of grey. Globally I think all we need is a wider difference between the colors in the levels and very visible ones to show the way to go.

EDIT: maybe going a bit more saturated is the key[/QUOTE]

Yep, this is the problem I have mostly. I don’t see the players.
Ok, it should be ok for a slow search and destroy game, but I don’t like it in this type of games.

(Mustang) #11

Looks a heck of a lot better if you do this:

Bindings=(Name="F10",Command="PostProcessAAType 0 | BloomSize 0 | FogDensity 0 | ColorGrading 0",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False,bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

I just wish it would remember the setting between maps…

(RasteRayzeR) #12

[QUOTE=tokamak;508486]This is what the game currently looks like:

Terminal 1.jpg1100×688 716 KB

This is what I’d prefer:

Terminal 4.jpg1100×688 748 KB

[/QUOTE]

Looks perfect. More contrast and a bit of color desaturation ?

(tokamak) #13

I used a few masks but yeah that’s basically it. Also keeping the yellows intact or even boosting them a bit. Like Mirror’s Edge.

The problem with the saturated yellow wash isn’t just aesthetics. Constantly looking at a similar colour creates a fatigue in your retina and it causes moving objects to blur a bit and you experience that especially on things that move within that context, like players.

It’s much easier to track players in areas either low in colour or diverse in colour. What you can’t do is have everything take on a same saturated hue. At least not in shooters. MMORPG’s can get away with it because you don’t have to spot others. Arena shooters like UT3 can get away with it because the players look like christmas trees.

But tactical shooters have a problem. Players start ghosting and blurring and it’s not the fault of the engine but human biology.

It’s either coloured clarity or desaturated atmosphere. You can do a grey fog but you can’t do a yellow or blue one.

And that pains me to say because I love atmosphere in my games. I play DB on the highest settings despite the disdavantage.

(tokamak) #14

Colour receptor fatigue is also used to create this illusion. Just to show how powerful it can be.

(BomBaKlaK) #15

[QUOTE=tokamak;508486]This is what the game currently looks like:

Terminal 1.jpg1100×688 716 KB

This is what I’d prefer:

Terminal 4.jpg1100×688 748 KB

[/QUOTE]

This color filter you actually have on Db is horrible

(DJswirlyAlien) #16

[QUOTE=tokamak;508486]This is what the game currently looks like:

Terminal 1.jpg1100×688 716 KB

This is what I’d prefer:

Terminal 4.jpg1100×688 748 KB

[/QUOTE]
I would have to disagree. I get what you are going for with the colour balance and desaturation but the photoshopped one looks… well photoshopped. The coloured lighting could probably be turned down a little though.

(tokamak) #17

That’s what the high settings do.