Visionary Realms met back up with CohhCarnage for a 40-minute stream on Twitch today to showcase the progress that has been made in the technical art department. This stream was of course shorter than ones in the past, but it didn't take long for viewers to realize that Terminus looks very different from when we saw it last. VR took us to several different locations, highlighting certain aspects of each. Judging by comments in Twitch chat, the reactions were overwhelmingly positive. If you're like most people, you were probably too busy looking at the gorgeous scenery and forgot to listen to what was being said. Therefore, here's a quick recap:
(Click on the headings below to jump to the point in CohhCarnage's Twitch video where that topic is covered. Words alone cannot do it justice - if you haven't already, see for yourself!)
Ben Dean - Director of Communications
Ben "Kilsin" Walters - Community & Web Manager
Chris "Joppa" Perkins - Creative Director & Lead Game Designer
Bruno Rime - Technical Artist
Lighting:
- This is only the first pass at improving the lighting fidelity. It will only improve from here.
- VR is working on getting the lighting system ready for Pre-Alpha, which will be happening “shortly." (NOTE: Pre-Alpha access will be removed from the pledges soon.)
- Increased the intensity and contrast of the lighting system.
- Systems are in place to ensure the detail in shadows is much stronger.
- Pantheon uses an image-based lighting system for ambient light, enabling detail that represents something similar to the environment in which the character would be.
- When your character is in a shadow, it does not lose all of its shading; there is a reflective light coming from underneath the character, appropriate to the environment.
- Shadows change along with the weather and time of day, without losing contrast or definition.
- Weapons you wield are visible from first-person perspective.
- Detail is preserved in extreme draw distance.
- The systems in place allow objects to be drawn as much as possible, as efficiently as possible.
- Optimization is a priority, because poor performance and framerate can ruin the enjoyment of an otherwise beautiful world.
- Clouds are procedurally generated and will change with the weather.
- Currently, hitting F11 opens a window that displays your current FPS along with other technical information.
- Character draw distance will probably not be tied to environmental draw distance. It may be a separate slider.
- For general game performance, if only a few pixels of an object are visible, it will probably be removed.
- Target distance (along with draw distance) will be better determined during Pre-Alpha, based on the big sample size of computers that players are using to run Pantheon and how they perform.
- Tools are designed to be as efficient as possible to keep framerates down, but also in a way that allows the art team to produce them quickly and efficiently.
- Artists paint textures and details within the Unity editor, but a lot of the mundane work is done automatically to save time.
- Work on this technical art is done in parallel with system design, game design, etc. It does not slow down the other teams.
- As the shadow distance slider is lowered, shadows in the far distance are still drawn. This allows everything in the scene to look much more grounded and 3D.
- The far shadows are not using the default Unity shadow system. Those shadows have very little impact on GPU usage, thus improving performance.
- This is an example of how VR is writing their own code that pushes the limits of the Unity engine.
- Water system is designed specifically for Pantheon. The existing water systems were too slow. This will continue to see more improvements.
- Water has been giving more realistic algorithms.
- Subsurface scattering causes colors and detail to change depending on the depth of the water.
- The customized Unity deferred renderer will be applied to other areas such as grass, trees, leaves, foliage, skin shaders, etc.
- Localized effects such as fog can affect the lighting.
- Fog is volumetric. As you run around in it, it moves and thickens.
- Glow effects can be seen through fog and are affected by the thickness of the fog around them.
- The upcoming post effect systems will take this much further and increase the ambience.
- Audio cues are 3D, allowing you to tell which direction a sound is coming from.
- "Gloom" is an Atmosphere that has unique visual representation, as well as impact on gameplay.
The whole stream is also available on Visionary Realm's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=T3mr5_SDgsk
Additionally, there are some screenshots of the new lighting system here: http://www.pantheonmmo.com/media/images/
As always, thanks for reading!
Baz
VizualAbstract said:The gloom's visual effects were pretty awesome. I was very impressed. I'm assuming it's going to be a type of system to become "acclimated" with.
Yeah, Gloom was awesome! However, it's important to point out the difference between Atmospheres and Climates. As far as I know, the Acclimation system applies to Climates only, which are more weather/ecosystem-oriented effects. These generally cover a wide portion of the zone. Atmospheres, on the other hand, are usually created magically, such as by the glowing crystal we saw in the stream. Their radius is usually much smaller than that of a Climate. Instead of Acclimation, the only way to resist the effects of an Atmosphere will probably be a special item or potion. Make sense? :)
Thanks Baz, impressive graphic improvements made by the team, that really makes a true difference and add life to the world.
Edit : found a better thread to put this comment in, sorry for that.
Very impressive.
Check out the difference from then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INd9SfIbWN4
to
now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=T3mr5_SDgsk
Kilsin any chance you can show a minor clip from then and now? just curious how the inside of the town looks. Maybe someone else has a current pre alpha video available i am not seeing.
Just so excited to see all of this.
