New Lighting Engine + New Site news

Lighting Engine Update

The lighting engine, as most know by now, has gone through many, many changes. It's getting closer to it's final stage. This update to the lighting engine will most likely remain until the alpha is released. Lights are brighter, spread more, and the whole method is approximately 100 times faster. The spreads are done using an HLSL shader, and updates to source and blocking masks are done periodically on a chunk basis. Below is a series of lists comparing the other systems.

First System:
• Done on the CPU, so naturally much slower.
• Lights blend exceptionally well.
• No attenuation; light not blocked by solid objects.
• Lights very triangular shaped.
Previous System:
• Done on the GPU, very efficient for spreading.
• However, the need to make source and blocking masks was very slow, because it was done every frame.
• Very inaccurate and dark.
• Lights blended very well.
New System:
• Also done on the GPU, still very efficient.
• Source and blocking mask updates done only when blocks are updated, essentially instantly. Now does only about a thousandth of the previous number of updates.
• Decently accurate, spreads far and bright.
• Lights blend decently, but not nearly as well as previous systems.

Here is a video showcasing the new lighting engine:

Souper Games (dev studio that is working on Explorium) now has a wonderfully revamped website:
Souper Games Blog / Main Site

Explorium can also be found in these locations:
GameJolt
Tumblr
TIGForums

Until next time,
Benjamin Mastripolito (Lead Developer)