First test of a parallax background.
+ light unaffected background
+ slight HDR from gun flash
click for larger version:
parallax background test
Written by MM. Posted at 4:32 pm on November 27th, 2009
26 comments.
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It nice! I like!
Very unnatural. Work on it.
But instead of my usual asshole comment I’ll even tell you why – you’re lighting up the background.
Basically you have two basic situations when it comes to night lightning. High visibility (low dust, ect) and low visibility (dust, rain, fog..)
In high visibility situations you wouldn’t light up the background. The only part that would actually be brighter in case of a shot would be the hot glowing gasses from the gun.
In low visibility situations, such as here, a gunflash wouldn’t make the background brighter – the dense milk in the air would diffuse the light, but the light would only obscure the background. Because the low-light background would be behind a strong diffused light.
The gunshot should light up the walls, ceiling and so on, but it CAN NOT make the background appear more visible or brighter. In fact, the bright light would make the background LESS visible, HDR style.
I know this, because I’m a friggin commando and have shot weapons in the night. With and without NV.
thx for the vid, looks ok, but the character is really terrible, super unnatural and holding the gun as it is a drill or sport shooting competition
MM, If you tell me that you generated those background layers using procedural techniques I will have complete faith in you.
Is synsynth still gonna do sounds and music on this?
no the sounds and music will also be procedural^^
Wow the background really creates a good atmosphere.
@archont
Jut because you like going commando it doesn’t mean you are one.
I saw absolutely no parralax there at all. If this is being achieved using a normal map, the normal is pretty shit, the normal is not the texture, it is the detail, the little cracks and bumps. It is not a 3d version of the texture.
http://www.teamblurgames.com/overdose/media/weapons/knife_large.jpg Look at the text on that knife, it was not modeled it is normal.
Makron, it’s parallax SCROLLING not parallax mapping.
http://mm.soldat.pl/?p=107 This is your post from 2 years ago and it looks better from what you have now…
Oh parralax scrolling, would be great if it said that in the description. Anyway, i hope there is no normal map there.
EDIT: (I wish there was a button for it.) And MM, before when asked about possible destructible terrain, you said the lighting would need to be dynamic. 1. why isn’t it? 2. Does that mean we can use it in our mods?
Here’s the quote Makron is talking about:
“Makron666: heat vision can be done.
I’m not planning destructible walls, that would mean the lighting engine would have to be dynamic. It is possible and I could do that in the future but at the moment LD doesn’t require it.”
Having seen that, yeah, what the hell? A pretty 2D engine is literally the ONLY thing this game has going for it, and now it doesn’t even have dynamic lighting?
archont: I see your point. In a situation like this the flash would temporarily blind you. That means the background would go darker. But also you would have a flash effect in your minds eye. So its two way. This is complicated and I don’t know if I want to dive into it.
@F3nyx: what he meant is the ambient lighting which is precalulated as in old games, the shadows are dynamic so don’t worry.
@mm: archont have put it in a complicated manner, i think that you should just light up the floor and walls and leave the background as it is. to solve the light glow issue you should look into “screen” and “multiply” photoshop filters
On an artistic note, the background looks very nice and captured that apocalyptic feel very nicely. You should be thinking “Day-amn! My background is epic!” if you are not thinking that, go back to paralax scrolling ;D.
I like the paralax, it works and is an excellent addition to any 2D side scroller. Yours is looking dandy. The gun lighting looked a bit flashy to me, but is this about lighting or paralax!?
Michal:
I am simply getting too excited about the possiblities of level design in this environment. Please do not make all of your levels procedurally generated.
I can’t see the background being lit up, i only see the foreground, and the smoke being lit up.
thats so fuckin awesome that i just cant express how awesome it is!
Besides whatever gun flashes do, at night in the moonlight – that does look natural (to me anyway). Closer objects are usually like silhouettes. It all depends on the elements and landscape.
You know, I was thinking MM, not to over complicate things, but just as Soldat has “distant battle” sounds, because of the fact that L-D will be newer and more modern for a 2d game, you could have things happening in the distance in the background – both audibly and visually. Like the occasional hovercraft zooming by – searching the ground with a large spotlight, or a mech running after some people shooting at them. Just a thought anyway. If you want that sense of gritty post-apocalyptic reality and the player feel like they are in the middle of an ongoing war – what better way than to have some live elements in the background to represent that, rather than just layers of still images of destroyed buildings and landscapes. Yeah, that would give the game a pseudo-2.5d look, but done right would balance with the gameplay and atmosphere quite nicely.
What sound library do you plan to use? Can it be openAL because some of us have soundcards and with oAL, we get advanced fading and mixing.
the game is looking great.
all graphics is preceduraly generated?
Maps are built by hand. They are only procedurally drawn.
Snow: distant battle background would be epic. Like an animated thing. If someone would make a background movie with soldiers fighting hell yeah!
do it yourself mr procedural hihihi
well mm , its not that hard? just make some AI fight each other in the background ? make them use a bit less cpu or sometin, turn down the GFX and it all should work fine.
I love Snow’s idea. Lightnings and such would also be great. And the sky being something like in the matrix … with animations of black clouds and such…
even if they are just silhouette in the background, with some gun muzzle flashes in the windows and the occasional arc of blood, then some hunter killers hovering in the distance. That would be great ambiance wise.