Video games that use flashlights as a way of aiding in dark areas usually do not allow the light be controlled separably from the camera movement, like in First Person Shooters. In The Night and the Silent Water the player does not control the orientation of the camera. He only sees a place from a predetermined position and rotation. Since I'm planning on including pitch black areas, having the flashlight pointing just straight ahead wouldn't simply work... To solve this problem I created a simple script that would focus the flashlight on the mouse's position:
//------------------------------------
//POINTS FLASHLIGHT TO MOUSE POSITION
var target : Transform;
var flashlight : GameObject;
var cam001 : Camera;
function Update() {
transform.position = cam001.ScreenToWorldPoint( Vector3 (Input.mousePosition.x, Input.mousePosition.y,1));
}
//------------------------------------
Fear not for I do not plan at the moment to give the mouse another use than this one.Another thing that I have noticed is that in most horror games, modern flashlights only illuminate the area to which the player is directly pointing at. Those who have wondered in the dark in the real life know that this is not precisely accurate. If you are in a completely dark room the light that comes from the device illuminates also the environment around it and not just the place that you are pointing at. I'm sure that you have all seen games that try to solve this problem by making the focus of the flashlight quite large which is not the best solution. By adding an additional point light a bit further away from the focus, the desired effect is achieved.From now on I'm going to enter into spoiler territory in the game development phase. This means that I may not be able to post a new update every week like I did before. I will instead post when I have something new or interesting to talk about like in this case. Thank you for your interest.
Illuminating the darkness
Video games that use flashlights as a way of aiding in dark areas usually do not allow the light be controlled separably from the camera movement, like in First Person Shooters.
Posted by LuisVilbro on
That's a really good idea. It makes sense really. If you are in a darkened room, you shouldn't have to turn your body left/right in order to see with your flashlight, like most horror FPS's do. It makes more sense to simply scan the room with your flashlight by moving it left or right.
Let's hope this catches on!