FMP 012: Let There Be Light

Being slightly behind schedule is a little bit worrying, but fortunately several weeks towards the end of this project have been set as polish and working on things we didn’t get time for at the start. This being said, I wanted something concrete and ‘completed’ to show by now. As a result, I went back into lighting this week.

I know what you might say, “Kieran, you’ve been doing lighting for weeks now. Move on.” well, I can’t. Looking at the engine file for as long as I do, I always believe there is something off or something I can do to make it better. A large factor that can essentially make or break an environment is lighting, the slightest change in how bright a light is or how dark a shadow is can make all the difference in the world. So, I’m back on lighting this week. I know I could be spending my time moving forward, but I’m worried that if I don’t get the lighting right, everything I do from here on out will suffer as a result.

The start of the level begins as the player walks down a forest path towards the house in a clearing. Having made changes last week on the size of the forest path, the original lighting no longer worked meaning I would have to tweak this area. The general crit on this area with regards to the lighting was how dark it was. Using warm point lights that don’t cast shadows was a temporary fix to the darkness. Working up from this lighting, I added in several spot lights with a dappled lighting mask and light beams to create a more natural lighting. The final touch was an additional post processing volume that would only cover the forest path. This volume was a last result to light the path, at first I was adamant in placing one in as I wanted the whole exterior to feel like one complete area. Thankfully though, through simple trial and error I was able to come up with a volume that seamlessly blends in with the larger post processing volume that covers the entire level.

Lastly, to give more ‘life’ to the level I modified the dust particle effect in the content browser to give off a slight emissive and began placing these all around the level. A bit of time went into changing the values of the particle effect to make it as subtle as possible while still making a noticeable change to the environment.

Overall this week seems as if I haven’t done that much work as noting new has been added to the engine file, but I believe lighting is really important when it comes to environments and I believe it was for the best that I took a week out on another lighting pass.