CSE4AT3

Level Design

Lighting and Texturing

Textures, Shaders and Materials

• You need good BSPs in your level.

• Onto them you put good Static Meshes and good Textures / Materials

• Some Textures are Shaders– A lot of Shaders just enhance textures

• Good Lighting will enhance all of the above, bad lighting will show/create flaws in the above

Lighting

• The quality of lighting required varies– Engine Capabilities / Machine Capabilities– Game Concept– Theme– Time

• Lego Batman has a very low connection with realism, thus many objects, textures, and much of the lighting can be simple.– Even in Lego games a flame torch should give

off a yellow/red light

• FPS Games are (currently) sold mainly on engine capabilities including light effects

Sunlight

• The time of day your level is set in is important (Even indoors) SH5

• A cloudy sky will produce soft / no shadows, direct sun creates Sharp shadows

Static Mesh, BSP, Texture, or Bump Map

• Fastest (worst looking)– Texture– Bump Map– BSP– Mesh

• Slowest (best looking)– You can also bump map BSPs and Meshes

for great levels of detail

Textures from Photos

• Typically rebuilding what you like by hand in Photoshop/Illustrator etc will create a much more manageable texture

• The main problems with photos are:– Tiling– Already Light– Perspective Errors when photographed

Avoid Drastic Texture Scaling

• Any scaling you put into a texture creates small errors

• These can be magnified by the rendering of the object

• Keeping the number of unique textures used down will help reduce memory loads– Does every rock in your level need a new

texture?

Consistent TexturesKeep your Theme

• Don’t use textures from sets with completely different colour bases / themes

• A Roman themed set of textures would not work in an industrial level– You can argue why it would blend in, but

arguing with the audience will NOT win them over to enjoying your game

Textures can also depend on Lighting

• When harsh lighting meets harsh colours something magical and ugly can happen.

• Artists will create textures based off the kind of lighting you expect to have in your level.

How Real Light Works

• Light is a particle wave

• It both Reflects and Bends, colours separate, combine, Objects reflect / refract / filter light

• It is way too complicated to generate all of the above in real time, so you need to cheat

• Lighting does improve every year, game engines are released / updated to include the newest technologies

• Even if technology was built to the point of 100% realistic light, you’d still have work to do.– Ever seen something odd that turned out to

be a trick of the light?– A gamer would see that as a bug, and loose

their immersion

100’s and 1000’s

• They make ice cream good, and that’s roughly how many light objects you’ll find in a current generation game level.

• How the engine cuts the fat– Lightmaps

• Similar to a photograph, during the level build the light falling on an object is calculated then an additive/subtractive texture is made for the level geometry.

• Vertex Lighting– Static Objects such as Static Meshes– Much easier to calculate than Lightmaps, and

is done in real time.– The results are cruder, and very dependant

on the complexity of the object

• Although Lightmaps and Vertex Lighting are slowly being replaced by more dynamic lighting, much of the basic level lighting is still performed by these two.

Lighting your level

• Brightness

• Range

• Tint

• Direction

Common Light Types

• Point• Spotlight• Fill• Ambient• Celestial (Parallel Lighting)

– The Sun– The Moon– An Alien Moon– The Atmosphere

Dynamic Shadows - Real Time Lighting

• Unless something can / will move / change dynamic is a waste of time

• Rather than calculate How much light the player would block, many engines cast a shadow

• Technology is changing this!!– Unreal3 Uses Ultra High Poly Meshes to

create Complex Normal Maps (Bump Maps++)

Highlight and Fill Lighting

• Highlights LOOK AT ME

• Fill lighting, in super dark caverns people generally want to make out the geometry, even without their torch.

• Not many games are 100% Black without a Torch

• Key Lighting is part of the gameplay, Fill lighting is more aesthetic and decorative

Lighting Colours and Theme

• Typical Lighting will all fall into a smallish colour spread for each level (or section)

• An Ice Fortress would require Lighting in Cool Whites, down to some shallow Blues

• The Volcano level Is going to use everything from white, yellow, orange and red. (Not much Blue I would suppose)

• Outdoors, you may need some greener lights as well as daylight to keep the feeling, or perhaps there is a fog, so even street lights will need a more yellow haze.

• Keep in mind what has / will be done in other levels of the game, sharing your ideas will help everyone

Avoid Contrast (Most of the time)

• We see objects by Contrast a lot.– When something stands out, our brain notices

straight away

• Unless you are going for dramatic, this may break the players immersion

Consistency of your lights

• If you move the Light Mesh, don’t forget to take the light too!

• IF it is night outside DON’T have light pour in through the windows of the indoors levels. SH5

Now for the Inverse - Shadows

• The nicer the shadows the better a level feels

• Harsh shadows can also remove the effect of noticeable tiling

Broken Light and Projectors

• An easy way to create dramatic lighting is by obscuring parts of the light– Pointing a Light through blinds, behind a Fan,

Underneath Pipes, etc

Things to Avoid

• Over Lighting (Things will look fake)• Under Lighting (Too dark is no fun)• Sources and Lights

– You don’t need a source for every light– Converse Not Every Source needs a light

• A Weird glow in an alien ship does not need explaining

• In reality the Light from an LCD screen would light up most of a completely dark room

Adding a little Character

• Keeping desks and chairs in line is not realistic.

• Add damage to some textures for chairs, etc– Especially if people were supposed to leave

unexpectedly

• Some Clutter will also liven up your level– Keep it from hindering gameplay– Try to keep a purpose or story for your clutter

Fog it up

• Fog adds a fantastic atmosphere to many situations

• Water• Sparks• Fire / Smoke• Debris

– They all add life to a level

Particle Effects

Theme Investment

• Everything should have a logical / semi-logical reasoning– Assault Rifles in ancient Rome?

• Realism doesn’t always breed immersion• Avoid Weakening the Critical Path(s)

– Many rooms without rewards can be frustrating

– Also Balance explorable areas across your level

• Don’t make the game too easy. Players want to explore, achieve, not follow the red arrow to win.

Creating Atmosphere

• Play on the players emotions, let them imagine things– Fear, Anxiety– Revelation, Realisation, and Wonderment– Relief, Satisfaction, and Joy– Loss and Regret

• Players get attached to items and NPCs

– Don’t forget the Audio in your Atmosphere• Sounds and Noises, or the absence of

Learning Techniques

• Cognitive Load Theory– Worked Examples work best

• Working Memory Loads should be kept low

• http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1988962.htm

• http://www.icecreamyou.com/ut3#3