Over the last month or so we've moved forward from a disappointing showing on Kickstarter by rapidly moving to progress toward a public release and also improve the visual fidelity of the game. To that end we have two major announcements to make.
We are using a dynamic Global Illumination method based on Voxel Cone Tracing
We've been working with this method for a while now and are ready to start showing off some of the results. If you're unfamiliar with the term, global illumination is simply the light interacting with all of the elements in the environment. In games, when an artist places a dynamic light into a scene, that light only interacts with the first surface it touches, illuminating that surface only. This is called direct illumination and it can look pretty funky left as is. In real life, the light will bounce around the environment, illuminating everything it touches. In games we can "bake" global illumination into a scene, but the problem is that baked lighting is not dynamic, so it doesn't interact well with dynamic elements in a scene. Also, moving objects that project light such as spell effects or a dynamic sun/moon do not work with baked global illumination. So if we're placing dynamic lights, normally we only get funky looking direct illumination seen below (click images to embiggen):
In Dungeonforge, rather than using purely baked global illumination, we are using a dynamic GI system based on Voxel Cone Tracing to simulate light bounces within a scene. This allows us to have dynamic elements in the scene which are correctly lit by both direct and indirect illumination.
Here are a couple more shots to demonstrate the difference between old style dynamic lighting with only direct illumination, and our dynamic GI system:
Out implementation of this system also means that light that reflects off a different-colored surface picks up the color of that surface, creating realistic color bleeding on areas throughout the scene. One example is the light reflecting off the green crystals and onto the cave walls in the shot below:
We're working on a playable demo for Dungeonforge
Our other announcement is that everything you're seeing in these screenshots is part of the first demo we have in the works for Dungeonforge. The demo is based off of a pre-alpha build and will be made available to bloggers and YouTubers who want to give their followers and subscribers an early peak at Dungeonforge before it's released to the general public. Shortly after that, a more fleshed-out Alpha build will be available to those who contribute to our PayPal campaign at Dungeonforge.net or by sending donations directly to paypal@thecollectivedreamstudios.com.. A $20 donation gets you into the Alpha!
More shots of the upcoming Alpha build below!
Stay tuned for more details and development news!
This is looking so incredible! I am super excited to see where this goes. I've always had a desire for a large multiplayer setting where you could create content. This looks like It's going to exceed my expectation HANDS DOWN! Way to go guys!