Sample Lighting Values

#1 Do you have a few screenshots of what you're seeing?

For ideas of how to setup the values check out: TDN - Designing Scenes for HDR and DRL.

#2 Thanks for the reply John. Yup, I read through the TDN. The values used for TGEA seem to have the same general effect as the values from the CG DRL resource, just not the same balance or scaling.

It seems like lighting saturation is being maxed out, and I'm getting some waaaay to bright colors, instead of the soft glow effect of bloom.

Here are 2 links to how bloom looks in TGE with CG DRL Resource:
Image One

Image Two


Here are some links to the screenshots taken in TSE with DRL and Bloom turned on, with various values:

Standard Terrain Mission: Default Values

Standard Terrain Mission: Medium Values

Standard Terrain Mission: Increased Target DRL


Standard Terrain Mission: Increased Target DRL + Increased Bloom Strength


Atlas Terrain: Standard Values

Atlas Terrain: Increased Values

Atlas Terrain: Increased DRL + Higher Bloom strength

So, any suggestions to get that soft, bloom look similar to the TGE shots, Oblivion, or GRAW?

#3 There are a few things going on in the scene which is making it difficult to tune the HDR/DRL. The terrain textures lack detail for the bloom to pick up, and the textures are not balanced with each other, meaning the terrain textures are much brighter than the character textures - this will cause the terrain to look overexposed while the character is not exposed enough.

To get an idea of the color/intensity balance between scene objects, disable all lighting except ambient and see how well objects blend together in the scene. The content provided with TGE 1.5 is balanced and looks well blended even under ambient lighting. Balancing your textures gives you the best starting place for standard mission lighting and HDR/DRL.

#4 This is turning into a really good "how to" TDN article....

/nudge John and run!

#5 Actually if Tim is interested in posting his presentation from our IGC 2005 Lighting Design session that would be awesome - he covered texture color and intensity balance in a way only an artist can (and it was accessible to anyone - artist, developer, or otherwise). I could post a companion piece to go with it (probably from my half of the session) that extends into HDR/DRL.

#6 Thanks for the pointers in your second post, John. I'll take a closer look at what I have going on in the scene (asset/texture wise).

I'd love to see some info from Tim's presentation some time, as well as your companion piece. I curently feel like my weakest knowledge of Torque consists of the lighting system, asset balance, and the occasional odd piece of code (WorldEditor::ignoreObjClass() anyone? (= ).

Thanks again for the help, and I look forward to any other advice you might have.