discussion Lighting vs realism in games

[kokokokokokoko]

Lightning looks very hard to make, so sadly it's often better to make it very basic

 

[Hongbottlo]

What exactly do you mean by that? What interest in lighting do you have?
Are you talking about image quality in general, or something really specific?

Most renders have a ver flat and even lighting like an old sitcom or cheap soap opera. Or porn. But very few use a some more dramaric lighting with deliberately set light and shadow to gibe a little bit more cinematic feel.

 

[Fannnnywooper]

I much rather have games that are too dark in some sections rather than have flat lighting through out the game.

 

[pedromega]

And once you have figured all of that out, you need to make sure and stay consistent throughout your game, which is another story entirely.

That's all good and really unfortunate. But it is hardly a reason to release a game with extremely dark images, as can be seen everywhere.
Yes, good lighting is an art that's hard to master. But basic postprocessing is easy and cheap. If anything, you can just put all images in some batch tool to even lights a little and that will make things much better.

Batch processing is so worth it, that I do it for some games I play just for better experience. So, if it is worth doing just for one person to see, maybe it'll be worth for all of author's fans to see as well, don't you think?

It's not that I'm trying to dictate what authors should do with their time. It's just that their work gets wasted because users can't see those details authos spent so much time working on.

 

[gestved]

yeah, played some games which had a lot of dark scenes, Haley Story comes to mind (at least at the beginning, later they changed it). I think visual clarity is very important, we are not in the same position as the MC that has the ability to touch for information, we as observers rely on vision at all times, the creator need to keep that in mind for his work to be effective.

Also it's not that realistic as our eyes adapt to low light situations, there are plenty of games that handle low light scenes much better.

 

[DoctorWells]

I don't need 100% realistic lighting, but I hate when you have flat lighting and the skin on characters just looks weird and kinda grey?

 

[Fannnnywooper]

I don't need 100% realistic lighting, but I hate when you have flat lighting and the skin on characters just looks weird and kinda grey?

agreed, makes everything very boring

 

[Nezron]

If it too dark to see, then what is the point.
I remember the 2nd Alien vs. Predator movie was so dark you could not see anything... what a waste.
And if you are making a visual novel... it should be visible

 

[herelooking027]

Some games try to overdo the realism and the scenes are really dark.

I found several of the scenes in "The Island [MichaelFenix]" to be so dark I had to skip most of it.


I get the idea of realism, but really? There are obviously levels of lighting that set scenes and timing, but I also think that it is pretty easy to discern the time of day, and I think it is preferred to see the scenes rather than immerse for most of them.

I just wrote in a different post that I play games for fun not for simulation. This is another example of why some games annoy me. If someone's goal is to make a realistic simulation that's ok but it's not the game I want to play.

 

[s3gfaul7]

That's all good and really unfortunate. But it is hardly a reason to release a game with extremely dark images, as can be seen everywhere.
<snip>

I wasn't making excuses for authors who release games with pure quality images. As a matter of fact, it tends to annoy the living hell out of me too. All I was saying is that I understand why it tends to happen, but it certainly doesn't excuse laziness or unwillingness to learn how to produce at least halfway decent images.