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Ambient lighting Tutorial


4sheetzngeegles

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This ia a very simple tutorial. It is my first.

 

It will show how to adjust the lighting and environmental color. This is

a visual tutorial so you can see what results may be achieved.

 

I uploaded, the tutorial examples for quicker learning, no exes, or dlls,

only images. They are all from the resourceassets file in the 7DaysToDie_Data

folder. are all ready to be reimported after editing. File format is TGA.

 

The tools I used were Photoshop any version will do as long as it has gradient tool,

and UABE to extract and re-import the textures.

 

The main thing you need to know is which index file is associated with

which biome. I included a legend for that.

 

There are 14 static biomes plus 7th day override. We will use 9 the others are

available but not enabled presently. Sky has 14 files plus sky sphere. Amb has 5 files.

Sun has 13 files. The odd set of files is ambient, I use them in grayscale for

lighting intensity if a17 contiues to use these i may expand this tutorial to

other files.

 

Sun projects light toward the plane. Sky is either a complimentary or contrasting

color most appreciated at night with the stars. moon is 20% of the intensity of

the sun. Ambient can be used to regulated how far is actually illuminated by the

sun/moon. I included a couple of gifs to give quick visual representation.

 

The images are 1024 pixels wide, they represent a 24 hour time clock, and using a

gradient color will dictate the dominant color that will be projected at any given

point in time, like tint on a car window.

 

A few possibilities, emulate emerald city, using greens, simulate eclipse during day

using black for first half of clock. make night come before 10:30 pm. use SDX and have

A large assortment of color schemes. Sdx can pick randomly, so once gameplay is started

you never know what the day will be like. VARIETY.

 

I zipped the file and kept as small as possible. here are a few snapshots, if it is

interesting here is the link. *****https://mega.nz/#!dfoDiChD!VXg-j4tMlAw0BR9V838breXzjqZbB7xhFdiMY96wiDw*****

 

Trying to keep it as straight forward as possible.

The only real lookup that must be done is the UABE tutorial. For importing

files. Hope this helps someone start modding or sparks ideas, that go beyond this.

Its just a seed.

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Test 1: HDHQ - Texture Overhaul + Extended [WIP] by DUST2DEATH

 

Here are some visual examples of what can be achieved graphically.

After receiving permission from the Mod author anyone can reproduce

these effects and or expand on them.

 

These images were taken by DUST2DEATH,

From HDHQ - Texture Overhaul + Extended [WIP]

 

The files appended were: Resource.assets/BlockTextureAtlases/

Items.xml for the hand held lighting/Biomes.xml turning off default

spectrum to allow color scheme to flow.

 

https://imgur.com/a/HgOu5v9

 

I just got permission from GuppyCur to test using his Medieval Mod

Will post pics as soon as completed.

 

Thanks again to all the modders, If you didnt give me such good

subject matter to work with I'd just be playing the game.

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Lighting expansion

 

I have read several post recently regarding lighting. Seeking a bit more realism. Here is a parameter that exists in xml to help achieve that.

 

<property class="Attributes">

<property name="FalloffRange" value="1,10"/>

</property>

 

This is used in multiple, depreciation settings. I use it for Projected lighting, I used it prdominantly for candle,Torch, and flashlight, both individual and attached to weapon. Secondary i use for minbike headlight, and spotlights. To completely set what i call the movie time mood I expanded it to all of the lights within Pois, no specialfx, but each one is an individual, It makes a subtle but noticable change.

 

I A17 i may expand to velocity/distance. For now just test it. for a candle make the high value 4, torch between 8 and 10, pois 5 to 7, minibike 20 to 40, flashlight 10 to 20, in a17 i have plans to make batteries die.

 

You won't see night the same. And you can add this easily in your favorite mod, or Vanilla.

Enjoy

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Using shadows ingame

 

Shadows: light/spectrum/ambient/shadows.

This is something I recently observed regarding shadows.

a16.4 and prior, a17 it may be fixed have to wait and see.

 

Try this, if you are an admin or playing SP, turn on

shadows Near, then hit F1 to bring up the console,

type dm to go to debug mode, in the console, type this

weather clouds 40 it will be slightly overcast but no rain

light will only be slightly diffused by the clouds.

70 or greater gives the option for rain. Now type weather fog 0.

hit f1 to close console, walk around a bit, focusing on the near

ground then expand view further away.

 

There is normally a waver

with the shadows, that stops a second after you do. White light

seems to affect it most noticably. Also lower the gamma until,

the foliage begins to have an autumn look.

 

I am sharing this because,

I didnt turn on shadows from the beginning because of the shimmer

Once I started learning what ive posted in this progressive tutorial

I turned shadows and godrays on and it changed the whole game perspective.

If you like the partial results, but want to go deeper. Follow the

instructions i uploaded, and seems so far, golden and darker browns

in the gradients bring out the more lifelike colors. These colors can

also be transposed to the night environment giving a dark eeerie outline

to buildings and entities.

here are two examples.

 

Reactive OutDoor Shadows

https://i.imgur.com/6ZN4RCI.gif

Ambient Torchlight

https://i.imgur.com/xyMycW5.gif

xyMycW5.gif

6ZN4RCI.gif

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I recently read a post, and also had a discord conversation regarding the same subject. The subject is physical ability, to play during the night, time scheme of the game. For those people, the ambient spectrum can be adjusted, to provide comfortable levels of light, during the 24 hour time period. Its not limited to just beutification, of the land scape. Look above at the pyramid. It is 00:00 midnight, in that snap shot. I need to research and find the colors, that are predominently used for colorblind, or visually hindered players. Then I will create a color scheme for them to import. Unless the means of controlling light changes in later versions. It should stay a simple import.

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Here is a copy of my first color deficiency test. Please try it and give feedback,

It is the terraintexture file only. Just rename your terraintexture file with extension orig. and unzip to folder then play.

 

***https://mega.nz/#!BOpHiKoI!lVxaLFPlpQn5qwOOfFHBTGnwre6M39TvKSl37gXhtcg***

 

If this is along a postitve path i will also edit the ambient lighting to compliment it. It's not really a mod just an expansion enhancement.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ambient matrix update

 

wMwPQuz.png

This is the updated Lighting Matrix.

1 Sun is directional light, can be used to accent dominant colors in a biome.

2 Ambient is best used as a gray scale gradient, for intensity.

3 Moon is 30% as bright as sun at night.

4 Sky is the outer dome color,

5 Fog is the inner dome color, this can be used to limit vision distance,

but can also enhance sky color scheme.

6 Combining them should be subtle variations, or intensity, becomes too cartoonish.

7 The ambient textures are a basic 24 hour time line left to right.

8 Different atmospheric feels can be achieved, using darker colors, like using color

filters in a movie.

9 Blood moon color tone can be changed, to darker or lighter.

 

I will post themes, and upload the textures, for anyone to import.

With simple instructions. The zipped downloads should be no more than 10 meg.

 

Just need UABE, download, unzip, import process, rename file to resource.assets

and play no new game needed. To revert to default color. just log of rename

the original file back and you are done. Now any completed mod can add this in a

few minutes. I'd be willing to try color scheme requests, if they are possible.

Just post and let me know.

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Thanks Dust, lessons learned and learning still. Since A17 is supposed to combine decor visuals, and reduce the Biome number, It may end up simpler for me to decipher. 3 biomes is a lot easier than 14. Working on Medievalmod, which has expanded and combined biomes, has helped my understanding a lot. cant wait

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  • 2 weeks later...

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