Update #49: Water, Trees, Day/Night, Lighting... All That Jazz

[Blargi]

all in all it looks great.

the only thing that i want to nitpick is about the foliage movement - it's a bit weird to me that only the middle of the foliage moves in each of the bushes/trees. it looks like there's a cardboard foliage at the front of each bush and something behind it moves.

[TMZuk]

Oh wauw!

 

That just looked fantastic!

[LadyCrimson]

Thanks, Obsidian, now I can't sleep.

 

 

shadows don't move with "sun" during daylight-changes

I don't like this either.

 

There is absolutely no dynamic shadowing. None. Zero. Zilch.

 

The shadows from trees, bushes, etc. never move.

 

 

I'd guess that's one of those things they still need to work on, assuming they're going to have them. It does seem a little odd once you look for it, but eh...doesn't bother me much at this point.

[Co0n]

Awesome landscape!
 

But: Don't like the characters movement. (I know it's WIP!)

The feed slide over the floor while walking, the animation looks a little robotic.

 

Anyways, keep the good work up

[MysticDea]

Absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to lose myself in this game. Well done guys \m/

[Theobeau]

This looked so much better on a proper monitor rather than a dinky smart phone screen.

 

I love the extra detail such as the smoke from the camp fire in the background and the shadows from the character (were they dynamic or static?) and surrounds.

 

The twilight / dusk shots and magical lighting effects were very impressive.

 

Well done team PE!

[Osvir]

Amazing, absolutely gorgeous

[mstark]

Thanks, Obsidian, now I can't sleep.

 

 

shadows don't move with "sun" during daylight-changes

I don't like this either.

 

There is absolutely no dynamic shadowing. None. Zero. Zilch.

 

The shadows from trees, bushes, etc. never move.

 

 

I'd guess that's one of those things they still need to work on, assuming they're going to have them. It does seem a little odd once you look for it, but eh...doesn't bother me much at this point.

 

 

I wonder if it would actually be possible! It didn't bother me that much, though.

 

Maybe they could use the same light mapping system as they did with the little glowing spirit, but on a (much) larger scale. Say, they render out a light map for a HUGE glowing object passing by, far away, in a semi-circle, then time that lighting map to match the day/night colour filter cycle.

 

That actually sounds like it could be potentially awesome. Maybe it'd be possible to have 2 overlaid light maps, one slowly repeating for day/night cycles, and one for other objects (torches, spirits, glowing weapons) passing over the area.

 

Not that I imagine I understand exactly how the technology works, so maybe it's not possible at all.

 

Dev input?

[SchwingSk]

Hi, I just signed up to say that this looks fantastic, keep up the good work!

(yeah I know it's been months since the kickstarter campain ended, but I kind of want to see as little of the game as possible before release, I like surprises. Which just contradicts the fact that I watched the video. I guess I'm sometimes weak )

[oneda]

Awesome landscape!

 

But: Don't like the characters movement. (I know it's WIP!)

The feed slide over the floor while walking, the animation looks a little robotic.

 

Anyways, keep the good work up

 

The characters don't show any movement when idle apart from some very weak breathing movement or something? So it's clear they are far from the final version.

 

But already I like how they look. The art style is perfect in my opinion and this is only a pre pre pre pre pre version.

 

So far I love it.

[Bhazor]

Only complaint is theres no wading/difficult terrain animation, it looks like the character is just walking on an invisible bridge. I don’t mind the lack of animation but walking through water like that should at least slow you down, seems like an important tactical idea being overlooked.

But still its a year from release and not even at the alpha stage so I can’t be too critical.

[wanderon]

Heartstoppingly awesome!

[El Duderino]

The Dude abides this update!

[mstark]

Only complaint is theres no wading/difficult terrain animation, it looks like the character is just walking on an invisible bridge. I don’t mind the lack of animation but walking through water like that should at least slow you down, seems like an important tactical idea being overlooked.

But still its a year from release and not even at the alpha stage so I can’t be too critical.

I just imagined a stumbling mechanic, basically a random chance check while moving through difficult terrain (like wading through the river). If the roll fails, a stumbling animation could be played, moving the player a step in a random direction, and any action interrupted! Rangers would, of course, have immunity to difficult terrain checks

 

The "stumbling animation" could count as movement, and potentially trigger a subsequent terrain check (potentially triggering a secondary stumble), making it harder for characters with very low dexterity to pass through difficult terrain (because of repeated random direction stumbling).

 

I imagine this could be used to great effect when creating dynamic and interesting combat areas "You have entered a swamp, who knows what beasts lurk in the fetid pools surrounding you. You decide to tread carefully, as walking too quickly could end in disaster..."

Edited April 10, 2013 by mstark

[Nixl]

That exceeded my expectations. Initially, I did not know how to gauge Unity, the art team, or the animators, but this is great.  Better yet, it seems from the updates that you guys have a lot of flexibility in terms what you want to create and experiment with.

 

I look forward to the next update. 

[Chrząszczyrzewoszyczanin]

One thing I didn't like was that particle effect at the bottom of the waterfall was to dark and because of it looked like smoke. Apart from that it looks great.

[Liahim]

Cool! Looks awesome!

[Lysen]

 

I came, I saw, I drooled.

 

Any chance to get a 1080p video? 

 

Yes, please!

 

Awesome landscape!

 

But: Don't like the characters movement. (I know it's WIP!)

The feed slide over the floor while walking, the animation looks a little robotic.

 

Anyways, keep the good work up

 

I like how they move. It's cool that Obsidian didn't forget that people can walk. It really annoys me in some games where you are able to run only.

[LordCrash]

I cannot talk about how awesome that scene is because MY DAMN HEAD EXPLODED!

 

Obsidian, that is really awesome stuff, better than I have imagined how it could be. It's the true modern HD successor of the Infinity engine, KUDOS!

 

And a great thumbs up for all the animators and art people at Obsidian, you're doing a freaking awesome job!

 

Now give more, MORE......

[Orbiter]

"As I watched the clip, a smirk appeared on my face when I realized my investement had been a fruitful one." - Me 2013

[Gumbercules]

Looks terrific!

 

To nitpick, I echo some of the comments others have made:

 

• Hopefully you'll eventually have dynamic shadows that change with the time of day.
• The characters could have more animations such as when they're idle or when they cross difficult terrain.
• Some of the elements such as the bridge don't seem to have as much detail as the original screenshot.

Still, it looks amazing and there's plenty of time to improve even further.

[kibermiaf]

Fantastic work - this is easily the most fantastic technical display of pre-rendered 3D that I've ever seen.

 

If it's possible to share (and any of the artists ever read this), I would love to know if the dynamic lighting was created by using height maps/z-depth renders of the 3D versions of the assets, and then storing them along with the tiles.  If you can't say, I understand, but lighting for 2D games has always been a pretty terrible experience for me, and I've love to have at least a hint that my guess is headed in the right direction

 

I can't wait see how this looks when you have this in a level full of clearly overlapping tiles, like your dungeon from earlier.

 

Really awesome - keep it up!

 

Yes, Obsidian, please shed some light on how it was done!

[anek]

 

shadows don't move with "sun" during daylight-changes

I don't like this either.

 

 

Well in the actual game you won't see the day/night cycle fast-forward like that, so it will be much less noticeable what changes and what doesn't.

While having the shadows change would be nice attention to detail, it's not really necessary.

Edited April 10, 2013 by anek

[El Duderino]

I need a backer store so I can up my pledge and get some physical goodies.

[Greensleeve]

Well... I'm not sure what to say. It's amazing. I'm playing the first Icewind Dale right now, and I felt as though I truly was looking at a game made in the Infinity Engine 2.0. 

 

Also, Josh should've been more emphatic about the pressurise the room stuff. Would've saved me the need for a paint job. 

 

Finally, to all of those interested in other pre-rendered 2D backgrounds with 3D animations, look at Shadowrun Returns. It'll be out in just a few months too.