Lighting?

gamer456ism

Im trying to make a directional lighting system. So far I haven't found anything om google. If someone could explain the basics of it or provide a example project it would help a ton. Thanks in advance!

Hopscotch

@gamer456ism‌, what exactly are you trying to achieve? Shadows?

Using GS it will come down to smoke and mirrors. This is what I have been experimenting with, but maybe there is a simple solution for what you have in mind.

gamer456ism

@Hopscotch said:

gamer456ism‌, what exactly are you trying to achieve? Shadows?

Using GS it will come down to smoke and mirrors. This is what I have been experimenting with, but maybe there is a simple solution for what you have in mind.

Im looking for how to make light appear on a surface. Check this video form another thread to see what I mean basicly

Hopscotch

@gamer456ism‌, @Socks' example is more than likely pre-rendered images that swap out depending on the angle of the lightsource.

Actually rendering dynamic highlights on an object needs a 3d engine.

That said, there are many ways to simulate the effect, but each solution would be specific to a certain desired effect.

If you could supply a sketch or mock up, then the community may come up with ideas.

gamer456ism

@Hopscotch said:
gamer456ism‌, Socks' example is more than likely pre-rendered images that swap out depending on the angle of the lightsource.

Actually rendering dynamic highlights on an object needs a 3d engine.

That said, there are many ways to simulate the effect, but each solution would be specific to a certain desired effect.

If you could supply a sketch or mock up, then the community may come up with ideas.

Basicly just whats in his video so that from certain angles it changes the light on the actor. Im sorry if I'm not being very descriptive its just I don't know anything about how you would do anything with lighting.

Lovejoy

@gamer456ism said:
Basicly just whats in his video so that from certain angles it changes the light on the actor. Im sorry if I'm not being very descriptive its just I don't know anything about how you would do anything with lighting.

@Socks‌ is a teleporting witch doctor, only he holds the key to unlock gamesalad 2025. Your best bet would be to chant his name and hope he hears your calling.

Socks

@Hopscotch said:
. . . This is what I have been experimenting with . .

Nice ! I like the way you have the objects casting wider or narrower shadows depending on how close the light source is, nice touch !

Socks

@Hopscotch said:
gamer456ism‌, Socks' example is more than likely pre-rendered images that swap out depending on the angle of the lightsource.

Exactly ! As simple as that.

@Hopscotch said:
That said, there are many ways to simulate the effect, but each solution would be specific to a certain desired effect.

If you could supply a sketch or mock up, then the community may come up with ideas.

Agreed, just saying 'how to make a directional lighting system' isn't very useful, it could mean anything, you could spend half an hour typing up something useful about shadows, only to find the OP doesn't want shadows, so you then spend half an hour typing up something about casting light onto 3D objects (in an external application) only to find the OP is not using (pre-rendered) 3D objects but flat illustrations, you then spend half an hour typing up some information / instructions about how to achieve an effect like your shadows (above) only to find out the OP isn't making a top down game, so you then spend half an hour . . . etc etc.

Like you say each solution is specific to the desired effect / project's needs.

Socks

...

Socks

@gamer456ism said:
Basicly just whats in his video so that from certain angles it changes the light on the actor.

@gamer456ism said:
Im looking for how to make light appear on a surface.

What surface ? Actor's don't have surfaces ?

In the video I have rendered a ball with the light shining on it from various angles - this was done in a 3D application - I then imported these images into GameSalad and told the actor to change the image it uses depending on the angle between itself and the light source.

As has already been said if you upload a sketch of what you need then people would have a better idea of what you are trying to do.

Socks

@Lovejoy said:
Socks‌ is a teleporting witch doctor . . .

Not true, that was all thrown out of court, I was exonerated (after I turned the main prosecution witness into a frog).

jamie_c

@Socks perhaps you are a teleporting duck then?!

gamer456ism

@Socks said:
As has already been said if you upload a sketch of what you need then people would have a better idea of what you are trying to do.

Im trying to make it do exactly what your vid is doing. Just how to make that.

Socks

@gamer456ism said:
Im trying to make it do exactly what your vid is doing. Just how to make that.

I'm not sure what 'it' is in this context . . . but as I've said in a previous post . . .

"In the video I have rendered a ball with the light shining on it from various angles - this was done in a 3D application - I then imported these images into GameSalad and told the actor to change the image it uses depending on the angle between itself and the light source."

Chunkypixels

I guess for people not coming from a graphics background it might not be an easy process to understand... but Socks already explained how he does it.

Your going to need a set of images for your actor, that have been pre-lit from the various angles of the light moving around your object. You then make the actor change to whichever image corresponds to the angle from which the light is coming from in your scene.

So in Socks case he's probably rendered out a different image for every degree of the 360 rotation... as he's crazy that way, and likes to use massive animation sequences just so he can try to break things

btw.. @Socks ..love the little vehicle pushing the pucks around... really nice. The one bit Im intrigued to know about is how you make your numbers rotate/skew on the back of the vehicle. Again..some groovy mathematics.. with a cool visual look. Im assuming its Maths... and not thousands of frames of graphics just for the numbers?!

Hopscotch

@Chunkypixels, you can play with the camera aspect ratio to simulate perspective skewing of images like in @Socks's example of the numbers/labels. Not saying that was his solution though.

gamer456ism

@Chunkypixels said:
I guess for people not coming from a graphics background it might not be an easy process to understand... but Socks already explained how he does it.

Your going to need a set of images for your actor, that have been pre-lit from the various angles of the light moving around your object. You then make the actor change to whichever image corresponds to the angle from which the light is coming from in your scene.

So in Socks case he's probably rendered out a different image for every degree of the 360 rotation... as he's crazy that way, and likes to use massive animation sequences just so he can try to break things

btw.. Socks ..love the little vehicle pushing the pucks around... really nice. The one bit Im intrigued to know about is how you make your numbers rotate/skew on the back of the vehicle. Again..some groovy mathematics.. with a cool visual look. Im assuming its Maths... and not thousands of frames of graphics just for the numbers?!

@Socks said:
"In the video I have rendered a ball with the light shining on it from various angles - this was done in a 3D application - I then imported these images into GameSalad and told the actor to change the image it uses depending on the angle between itself and the light source."

Hmm ok after some trying I got it to work based on what you said. Is there a way to make it so that the area of what you see is "black until you move near it and how to make something sorta of "glowing". Sorry im not very good with graphical things.

Thunder_Child

Geez we only ever see this stuff in forums. is there a book to learn this kind of sorcery?

Ed_Perkin

@Hopscotch is it possible to pm me the shadows file that you show in the video? :P

Ed_Perkin

Really want to know how you guys were able to achieve this , would be a great feature to many and my game that I'm currently working on

Hopscotch

@Ed_Perkin‌, here you go. As I said "smoke and mirrors".

Special effects are usually a specific solution for a specific need.

Ed_Perkin

Thanks

xtrsteve

So are you saying that @Socks has 360 images of the box with 360 shadow views for the light source equaling 129600 images?

Socks

@xtrsteve said:
So are you saying that Socks has 360 images of the box with 360 shadow views for the light source equaling 129600 images?

Who is this 'you' you are referring to ?

In the above example, the moving 3D (isometric) box car thing and its shadow are all generated inside GameSalad it uses no images at all, there only images in the project are a circle image for the little pucks on the floor and a couple of soft edge circle and square images for the glowing light.

xtrsteve

I was referencing this part of the discussion:

Socks Posts: 6,986Member
December 2014 edited December 2014

@Hopscotch said:
gamer456ism‌, Socks' example is more than likely pre-rendered images that swap out depending on the angle of the lightsource.

Exactly ! As simple as that.

xtrsteve

Now that you have amazed us with the video (and it is amazing) are you willing to share any more information? My first question would be how do you make a parallelogram without downloading an image?

Socks

@xtrsteve said:
I was referencing this part of the discussion:

That refers to the 3D ball, not the moving box car thing.

Socks

@xtrsteve said:
Now that you have amazed us with the video (and it is amazing) are you willing to share any more information?

I outlined the process in another thread . . .

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/70318/experiment/p1

@xtrsteve said:
My first question would be how do you make a parallelogram without downloading an image?

Downloading ? Do you mean importing ?

"parallelogram"

Hold on, let me make a very quick video . . . . .

xtrsteve

Thanks for the video and hooking me up with that thread. I can see the big ideas now but it will take some time to fully digest the content and try it out. Super cool stuff. It will take some time to "import" it into my head.