To quote: Hi, I’m Maciej Jamrozik, the Lead Technical Artist at Techland, developer of the upcoming first-person, action survival-horror game Dying Light.
Light and shadow play a crucial role in Dying Light. They affect not only the gameplay and its day-and-night cycle, but also the visuals.
This video illustrates how the game uses a physically-based lighting system, which means that light is generated in accordance to the actual laws of physics.
This in turn assures that lighting looks convincing and cohesive, regardless of the conditions and surroundings. It’s especially important as Dying Light features a variety of locations and environments, from open spaces to claustrophobic rooms, as well as a range of weather conditions and changing time of day.
One of the most important parameters of indirect lighting is „roughness,“ which defines the level of smoothness and dullness of a surface.
Implementing our new physics model eliminated the limitation of using only preset groups of materials, which translates to much more varied and faithful representations of materials in the game. Our artists now have full freedom over the level of roughness on objects, and can save the result in a form of texture.
On PS4, we use the console’s additional horsepower to generate dynamic reflections. Similarly, they make use of the „roughness“ to diffuse and reduce the impact of the specular reflection. It helps render the given material in the most realistic way possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apLqvAYNWys
