Like day and night
Hello everyone. Just a quick update to let you guys know that I’ve recently integrated a Day/Night cycle into the game (thank you LuckyMouse!). Initially I had thought it would be too difficult and time-consuming to implement but as I started working on the look of the landscape and the sky itself I felt it would be a worthy addition (and Paul agreed).
As I showed the result to Cyrille he pointed out that this was a very elegant solution to bringing variety to the visuals. There are still things to iron out and bugs to fix of course but here are some time-lapse screenshots from early morning to night.
(You can right-click on the image and choose “View Image” -although that may differ depending on your browser- that way you’ll be able to zoom in)
As you can see the look and feel really change throughout the day. And I guess it is a perk of not baking lighting at all in Unity; every light in the game is fully dynamic, so I might as well use that strength!
By now you guys know that Ghost of a Tale takes place in one unique location: Dwindling Heights, a keep perched atop a small cliff overlooking Lake Vaelia. But by allowing the lighting to change throughout the duration of a day/night cycle familiar places become new again. Here’s a a previously shown location under different lighting conditions:
For me personally it was very inspiring to witness that improvement because for literally a year I’ve always seen the place under ONE lighting condition. So it is truly a treat to rediscover spaces and volumes revealed by changing sun light and shadows moving across the environment.
Oh, and some things in the game will only appear at night, so that’s nice too… 😉
Fresh
April 3, 2015 at 8:54 amVery nice 🙂
Tom
April 23, 2015 at 9:57 pmThose screens look spectacular,
props for such a great work 🙂
Evilkinggumby
April 3, 2015 at 12:28 pmNice. having gameplay elements like nocturnal enemies or npc’s would make the game feel more dynamic and varied. I like this not only because it looks great and was something we were asking for early on, but because it adds to the experience itself. Awesome!
Seith
April 3, 2015 at 12:45 pmYes, you probably remember that I wasn’t too keen on integrating such a system when the project was still running on Unity 4. But after doing a couple of simple tests in 5.0 it became clear that this had become a viable option.
Now one thing I can say (almost) for sure will NOT make it in the game is weather effects like rain. Because it’s not just about seeing rain fall from the sky. It’s about water trickling down surfaces and other details like this that need to be right.
So, never say never but at the moment there are other (much more important) priorities with the game’s development! 🙂
Evilkinggumby
April 3, 2015 at 6:58 pm“So, never say never but at the moment there are other (much more important) priorities with the game’s development! :)”
Yes! like more hats to wear and a telescope and Tilo’s mum!!! lol..
Ok i know.. none of that hehehe.
I actually wouldn’t have expected weather effects at this point. since it is a much more localised journey, taking the time for weather or climates or even seasons is not really necessary or helpful. 🙂 as much as i’d love to see it, i also don’t want to have it shoe-horned into a small-ish game where it serves little purpose.
that said.. time to throw more ideas at Jeremiah so he can compose tons more awesome tunes!
Toptube
April 3, 2015 at 1:02 pmGet rid of the chromatic aberration. If you do that, the game will look excellent. Ruining color convergence, as a constant effect, is counter-intuitive to good, interesting visuals.
Seith
April 3, 2015 at 1:07 pmThank you for your input! Yes, I will eventually tone it down, no doubt. I’m mostly interested in keeping a subtle vignetting effect anyway.
Edit: That’s it! Chromatic aberration is gone from GoaT! Proof -> https://twitter.com/SeithCG/status/584012047148568577
Evilkinggumby
April 3, 2015 at 7:00 pmi don’t get it.. what is wrong with the color?
Seith
April 3, 2015 at 9:27 pmThis page here explains the issue: http://imgur.com/a/zyS5V
Mateus
April 6, 2015 at 3:52 amPlease ps4 *-*,beautiful game, simply fantastic
Bruno
April 16, 2015 at 7:18 amPlease PS4 or Wii U !!!
Seith
April 21, 2015 at 9:55 amThere is a reasonable chance that a PS4 version could happen. However a Wii U version is highly improbable at this point.