Here is a short and general description about how the lighting in Archaica is generated.
Note:
- On all the screens there are transparent and emissive materials (we just didn’t hide them).
- Archaica renderer evolved from light-pre pass to more deferred (for performance reasons - less draw calls). There is still option for computing lighting per-material (for example crystals use this).
Final effect
At first let’s take a look at indirect diffuse lighting (~ambient)
Every next screen shows another light technique added
Only height ambient (two colors interpolated by height):
Shadow color (fake secondary diffuse term). Takes into account scene height and normal (and it’s also colorized):
With SSAO applied:
And the last component: secondary directional light without shadows (fake simulation of the reflected light). So this is the full indirect lighting (diffuse; only secondary light adds something to the specular lighting term):
SSAO alone:
Indirect specular lighting (exaggerated)
Computed as a single fullscreen pass:
The direct lighting (diffuse and specular)
Direct light without shadows:
Shadows alone:
And mixed - full direct lighting:
Additionally - full (direct and indirect) diffuse and specular lighting alone:
Final Light composition
The final lighting in Archaica:
Bloom alone:
Mixed - final lighting and bloom:
As a curiosity - a final lighting without tonemapping:
Final scene
Without fog:
FINAL SCENE - with fog and godrays:
Additional comparison - Without colorgrading (colorgrading adds only a small correction to final look):
And as a bonus - Archaica gbuffer
Diffuse:
Normal:
Depth:
Reflectance (exaggerated):
Roughness:
Hope this is useful and interesting :)
Fell free to ask if You are interested in any part of computing the light (and final scene look) in Archaica!
Great article! Thanks for that :)
Thanks! There will be more articles like this one ;)
An inspiring article. I have a reasonable understanding of the technical terms used in this article, yet I don't feel creative enough to actually produce such content myself. Do you know any literature that is a good read that could help widen my horizon on processes such as this?
Thanks! It's hard to find all this information in one place. Try these two cool links I quickly found (and there are many more for sure):
Frame rendering in DeusEx:
Adriancourreges.com
and list of interesting tricks about doing various effects:
Simonschreibt.de
Hope this helps a bit. Cheers!
The resources looks interesting, I'll surely have a go at them. Thank you.
You're welcome!
Crytek presentations are very good too:
Crytek.com
The game is looking amazing! Would love to read some more about how all the passes are used to make the final rendering.
Thanks! We need to finish next Beta version and we try to find some time for more detailed article :)