Hello everyone,

While the Battle level I was creating is currently on hold for the present, I found that the basic premise of fog can be taken a bit farther than just that. While I am working on a proof-of-concept for the approach, I thought I would post the whole process here for everyone's benefit.

Anyway, I found a way to give an otherworldly aspect to lighting, giving the illusion of complex visual effects for atmospheric effect. For example:



This is with lighting set to 100%, but when reduced slightly due to Set Light events:



During actual gameplay, the shadows present flicker a bit, though they disappear when within that "sphere of light" present when lighting is lower than normal. To do this, I used specific events in the following format:



All the Steady Light events are to give the impression of normal lighting in the room, while leaving space for the "shadows". The Flicker Light events throughout the "path" going from that lower room to the doorway above add a "flicker" effect when spaced out properly (too far will leave solid patches, too close will lessen the "shadows" too much).

The trigger scenery is to make it appear as though lighting the brazier creates the "shadows" (though a purple flame would have been better atmospheric-wise), and the Set Light event lowers intensity to 31 (set behind the brazier and in front of the hoverboard to sell the illusion). Just on the edge of the "shadows" are Area Fly Off events, creating a small challenge where you have to "ride the shadows" on a hoverboard to actually be able to fly, as moving outside will cause the hoverboard to disappear.

With all that said, I could see this creating some interesting scenarios if done properly. Such a shadow effect can easily be turned off by using a Set Light event to return intensity to normal (or perhaps Reset Light), and if Set Light events are arranged with Trigger Zone events they could be used to create invisible platforms due to "concentrated shadows" (much less flicker due to absence of Flicker Light events, and more solid). Careful arrangement of light events to control the intensity and visual effect of shadows could create the illusion of fading into and out of the backround.

Theoretically, this should also work with slightly higher-than-normal lighting (using a Set Light event to change intensity to 127), which would also allow such "light" effects to remain regardless of how close the player is to them, since they do not behave the same way as lower-than-normal lighting conditions. Everything else would most likely behave the same way as "shadows".

Also, given how Trigger Zones work in multiplayer, this could allow for some interesting results if done right (ie. having a race double back along a before-then nonexisting invisible higher route at some point by pointing it out with lighting or "shadows"). As far as I know, weapons can still hit others behind a trigger scenery wall if not active for the attacker (though on the other player's screen it would appear to hit the wall before their taking damage from an "invisible" projectile), which would further sell the illusion of a "magic" platform or other such thing.

Any questions/comments on all this?

Reminds me of http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads...p?levelID=2521

Originally Posted by Stijn

Reminds me of http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads...p?levelID=2521

Project Fog provided a lot of the inspiration for this. I just find it interesting that the lighting effects can also be played around with to create visible "shadows" when done right, for atmospheric effect.

But rather than have it everywhere, I believe that instead structuring Set Light and Trigger Zone events to turn everything on and off at appropiate times works better in practice, which is also important due to the limitations of how many events can be in a single player level before problems start arising (if I recall correctly).