MaverickFM
Pathfinder Games
In this development blog by [TWDEV] Guillaume we are going to give you a closer look at the lighting and the associated technologies used in Traction Wars to see how they will affect the gameplay.
After the feedback of the Pegasus Bridge Video, which showcased both day and night lighting, it became clear for us that we wanted to incorporate this setup in the final game as well.
Today we are happy to confirm that in Chapter One: OVERLORD all map will feature two lighting variations that you will be able to play: one at night and one at day.
Server administrators can choose between the two versions of most levels as part of the map rotation queue. So you could, for example, run only the maps at night time or alternate between the day & night. You can even select the lighting that is historically accurate for the real operation associated with each map (more on that later in this post).
Of course we go beyond just changing the time of day. Real variations imply not just different lighting but also different weather and together with audio changes produce a dramatically different experience on the battlefield. As implied above we make sure that for each map one of the two variations will be historically accurate So, for instance, the night variation of our Pegasus Bridge map will feature the very dark night associated with its operation while our fourth (and still unannounced) map will feature unique weather for its day variant.
Creating these map variations is not without technical and artistic challenges. That is why we developed our own system that allows our designers to define for each lighting effect when they apply to day, night or both directly in the property panel of the CRYENGINE editor.
As the development of Traction Wars advances we have upgraded the version of CRYENGINE we use, which allows us to benefit from the numerous rendering features and improvements made by Crytek. This is especially true for lighting where we are making extensive use of the experimental SVOGI global illumination that [TWDEV] Mars demonstrated in a recent Developer Interview.
With many maps having a night variant, the artificial lights sources will be important points of interest that will have a huge tactical influence on the battlefield, especially on maps that will feature really dark nights like on Pegasus Bridge. This gives us the opportunity to provide tools for the players to influence that part of the environment e.g. by having a lot of lights destructible by bullets and explosives. While most lights will turn off when destroyed, you’ll have to be careful because some will flicker randomly giving only a small window of opportunity to pass underneath without being noticed by the enemy.
In this article we give you our vision of how the lighting in Traction Wars will provide a wide range of diversity for each map and create interesting gameplay scenarios that accentuate the tactical aspect of the game. But of course the lighting also makes a huge contribution to the visual impact of and immersion in the game, so you can look forward to hear more about that in a future development update.
Until our next update in two weeks time you can find us on social media
After the feedback of the Pegasus Bridge Video, which showcased both day and night lighting, it became clear for us that we wanted to incorporate this setup in the final game as well.
Today we are happy to confirm that in Chapter One: OVERLORD all map will feature two lighting variations that you will be able to play: one at night and one at day.
Server administrators can choose between the two versions of most levels as part of the map rotation queue. So you could, for example, run only the maps at night time or alternate between the day & night. You can even select the lighting that is historically accurate for the real operation associated with each map (more on that later in this post).
Of course we go beyond just changing the time of day. Real variations imply not just different lighting but also different weather and together with audio changes produce a dramatically different experience on the battlefield. As implied above we make sure that for each map one of the two variations will be historically accurate So, for instance, the night variation of our Pegasus Bridge map will feature the very dark night associated with its operation while our fourth (and still unannounced) map will feature unique weather for its day variant.
Creating these map variations is not without technical and artistic challenges. That is why we developed our own system that allows our designers to define for each lighting effect when they apply to day, night or both directly in the property panel of the CRYENGINE editor.
As the development of Traction Wars advances we have upgraded the version of CRYENGINE we use, which allows us to benefit from the numerous rendering features and improvements made by Crytek. This is especially true for lighting where we are making extensive use of the experimental SVOGI global illumination that [TWDEV] Mars demonstrated in a recent Developer Interview.
With many maps having a night variant, the artificial lights sources will be important points of interest that will have a huge tactical influence on the battlefield, especially on maps that will feature really dark nights like on Pegasus Bridge. This gives us the opportunity to provide tools for the players to influence that part of the environment e.g. by having a lot of lights destructible by bullets and explosives. While most lights will turn off when destroyed, you’ll have to be careful because some will flicker randomly giving only a small window of opportunity to pass underneath without being noticed by the enemy.
In this article we give you our vision of how the lighting in Traction Wars will provide a wide range of diversity for each map and create interesting gameplay scenarios that accentuate the tactical aspect of the game. But of course the lighting also makes a huge contribution to the visual impact of and immersion in the game, so you can look forward to hear more about that in a future development update.
Until our next update in two weeks time you can find us on social media
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Holy sh*t I cannot wait for this awesomeness.
