Plan for BobTheCBuilder (John Kabus)

I've wrapped up development of the Lighting Pack's 1.1 update and I'm very pleased with the results. I'm still doing some heavy testing, so the update won't be ready for a bit, but I wanted to show off the features that are coming up.


The features being introduced into version 1.1 of the Lighting Pack are:

-In game Light Datablock Editor - allows light datablocks to be edited in game, in real-time for very fast mission light modeling. Powerful architecture allows light objects to be quickly created using existing datablocks and quickly updated in groups by changing their shared datablock's parameters. Lights can easily be removed from a group by cloning the shared datablock and assigning it to the lights that make up the new group. The new group can be edited independently of the original and all lights in the new group will updated together.
-Enhanced interior dynamic lighting prevents textures from becoming washed out by dynamic lights. Affects all dynamic lights including all existing TGE dynamic lights (items, weapons, weapon fire, fxlights, ...).
-Sunlight as a directional light source for TSStatic objects - in version 1.0 TSStatic objects would indirectly receive sunlight from the surrounding terrain or interior as an ambient component, now TSStatic objects can directly receive sunlight (the original mode is still available).
-Adaptive self-illumination for TSStatic objects - when enabled on an object the Lighting Pack will adapt the object's self-illumination intensity to better suit the surrounding environment, this is very helpful when self-illuminated objects are too bright.
-Direct access to TSStatic objects' ambient component - allows a TSStatic object's lighting to be hand tuned. Also allows for cool self-illumination effects.
-Multiple lights and light groups assigned to TSStatic objects - makes organizing light objects simpler by allowing more than one light or light group (a SimGroup containing lights) to be assigned to a TSStatic object.
-High precision light weighting prevents light flickering when a large number of lights surround an object by using higher precision distance calculations and a weighting system to prioritize lights.
-Dynamic DTS objects can receive directional or ambient lighting - allows toggling between dynamic DTS directional lighting (similar to stock TGE DTS lighting) or ambient lighting (used in Lighting Pack 1.0). Directional lighting is generally better for brighter outdoor scenes like the TGE 1.2 demo and ambient lighting is better for darker scenes that do not use sunlight (nighttime).


Here's a series of shots and videos from the new Lighting Pack's demos showing some of the new features in action.

The following mainly show off the enhanced interior dynamic lighting in conjunction with the existing particle system lights:



www.synapsegaming.com/content/linkedimages/LightingPack_1.1_Tower1.jpg


An updated version of Mr. Orc getting warm by the fire, this time in 100% dynamic lighting (356K).


The following shows a triggered particle system and its linked particle system light illuminating a room as the player enters:

Triggered fire (2.8M).


The following is a very slow motion video of dynamic projectile lighting illuminating a hallway:

Slow motion projectile lighting (1.4M).


The following shows the Light Datablock Editor:



Light Datablock Editor (3.8M).


The following shows all of the new TSStatic object's light options in action on the TGE 1.2 demo:



And finally a little experiment I'm working on - the orc running around with a modified crossbow that has its image light enabled. I'm thinking of creating a Lighting Pack demo like this, however I may need to use a torch that emits light from above the player head, otherwise the vertex lighting looks too blocky, but it's still damn cool. :)



Light emitting crossbow (3.3M).


-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming