fault2b Quickie update - Underwater VIP Room

Vilserio folks

A quick and dirty update today—we’ve got the underwater “VIP” room almost fully operational, complete with all the lighting effects we envisioned.

Take a look! Volumetric lighting with 2D characters in a 3D world! I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s a big deal to me that we’ve managed to create what I’d call a “beautifully lit” environment. It’s almost never straightforward for us, especially since Ritona and the rest of the characters are flat 2D art. It’s basically impossible to light them with depth. We were able to achieve this, in part, by placing a ton of light probes in the right spots so she never becomes completely pitch black, even when the lights are behind her.

There are two key differences that set this room apart from the other maps we’ve created so far:

 1. The lighting design requires a different mindset since the entire room is primarily backlit.

 2. There’s a massive sea view visible through the window, like an aquarium.

We’re still fine-tuning number 2. The mirk and density of the water refracting light when it passes though needs to be more consistent and more importantly, noticeable, but for now, it’s good enough, especially with LA Comicon just around the corner.

Check out the light probes behind the scenes, they look pretty nuts:

Like a weird disco from another dimension. And this turns into...

This. Magic.

Do you guys remember this room?? It use to look like this:

There really wasn't much of a “room” because it was more conceptual since we were only going to depict it in the context of a visual novel. Never in a couple of years or so did we dream of rendering the entire environment in 3D.

Can’t wait for you guys to walk around in the environment and play with the Comicon Demo. Hope to talk to you all soon.

-Munisix