1. #21
    Jarr3tt88's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    Originally Posted by LitTlExJeZuZ
    I use lighting for atmospheric apsects, like the feels and look of a track but if there is a part of a track that is barely visible is will light it usually with enviro settings. If that is not possible then a very dim and low-ranged point light suffices. But when i changed enviro settings i try hard to blend colours and not make any 1 of them stand out more than another, especially shadows vs ground colour, i try to make more natural and realistic enviros with th DL visible, unfortunatly none of these ideas are directly shown in any of my tracks, but they would i i made one now.
    I do exactly what you do for lighting. Since most of my tracks are outdoors, I play with the environment colors, than place indoor point lights as necessary. Lighting is relatively easy to do in evo compared to THD.
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  2. #22

    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    definately agree barry. definately somthing i need to improve on. I think my lighting is generally ok "plenty room for improvement" but the use of shadow is somthing i aint explored as much but plan to. For a brilliant example of shadow check out the wcc track it's called Antanuga inc by NorfaiR76. I think he got round some of the performance issues by making the shadow a bit lighter in certain areas "just my guess" allthough you can see a shadow of the rider through out the whole track. Over all very nice track to look at and the silloette of the rider looks awsome. Which is great because i have been playing this track allot partly cause it's solid to get a decent run.
    The last decent track i made Ultimate skillz v3 i wanted to have dynamic lighting in certain areas but i found it turned it into a laggy mess. Shifty is probably right though if i had spent the time i could have made it work. But at the time it felt like the least of my worries. One thing i have come to believe is that somtimes the performance limits can be a blessing in disguise "not allways" as often when i have had to comprimise it has meant that i have refined areas that wouldn't have been refined and ended up with somthing better than if i had got what i wanted in the first place.
    The next track i make lighting and shadow is somthing i will definately be thinking about.
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  3. #23

    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    Yeah, big thanks to morrillo for capturing the footage for this. Having a visual reference made it all a lot easier to try and explain! lol
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  4. #24

    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    Nice vid mate,we'v had a few "discussions" about this before lol.i totally agree that shadows make a big difference in a track and your vid defo proves it but i honestly dont think its essential as most of the time i never notice stuff like that as i'm too busy trying to get a good run.as long as the dl is good then i'm happy,i just think it's a bonus if it looks good
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  5. #25
    DJ_2wItchY's Avatar Trials Developer
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    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    shadows are deffinitely important to me as it enhances the atmosphere to the track big style, but this is another reason why i don't make indoor tracks. i put a lot of detail into one frameshot and putting one source of light in my track gives me so many issues with tears when making a track outside, never mind inside. i'm currently making a track that is set at night but the lighting is still there like normal and easily done. pointlights to me, seem like the only good lighting that gives a good effect. the other lights have a cut off line on them an look tacky.

    another little issue is if you make an indoor track and you set the sunlight to aim into the building, it gives off the feeling that the track is fully open on the righthand side of the biker and doesn't give the sence that you are actually indoors which can also look tacky. as people have said before, your going to have to put a lot of effort into doing lighting properly and carefully on an indoor track. this is why i make outdoor tracks so i can focus more on detail and not have to worry about desroying the track with flat looking track issues.
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  6. #26

    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    The trick is to use point lights off of the line and dynamic lighting on it. This reduces the sharpness of the lights "edge" without killing the shadows. Also, by using environment settings in conjunction with point lights and dynamic or static lights, you can help prevent it from looking like the track is ALL lighted from one side. Of course, its all dependant on the type of track, the style and the construction as to which combination of lighting is best. You can also use the environment lighting/area conditioners to provide a shadow for the rider/objects, but not the tracks atmospheric lighting. So you can use it in one or two areas where you may otherwise of had performance issues from dynamic lights.

    There are so many ways of doing it that its impossible to try and list them all. But I honestly believe there is always a way of getting shadows into a track, to add to its deco and atmosphere. The difference shadows can make to a track is massive and always worth the effort imo.
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  7. #27
    jook13's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    Nice demonstration Barry! I am with Flyer on this though.

    For me, it is always a constant struggle to avoid lag and screen tear when lighting. I cant count how many times I have been like "Ok... fine. I will change that to a wall light." Because I dont care how flat it looks, I will have boring lighting before I have a track with lag in it. But considering how much random objects I cram into each section of track, I think I do OK with lights. I can certainly improve though.
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  8. #28
    Smeghead89's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    great thread bazza this is definitely a well needed discussion, lighting is one of the most important aspects of a track and needs to be executed carefully.

    when i start a track the 1st thing i do is to set the natural light colors and light direction to choose which way i want the majority of my shadows to go. Combining background fog in the environment settings to match the color of the shadows can look good for a realistic dark environment look and the use of point light in areas that are too dark. If i use lights which cast shadows i usually have them visible so you can see which direction this new light source is coming from.
    Silhouettes can look cool having the rider and obstacles dark and matching the shadows but needs strong light behind all objects so their edges stand out properly. Things like fog, ground ambient, sky ambient and sunlight color are all important to get right too and if done well should be complimented by the use of shadows creating the perfect environment.

    When working indoors (which i haven't really done since trials hd) its very different and all your shadows and lights need to be placed individually. You need to think about if you want to also use sunlight through windows as well as static lights indoors, too many lights in different directions will cut off shadows and everything could start to look strange with no dark edges or sides or shadows.

    Imo as much effort needs to be put into the lighting as does the making of the actual track and it is usually important to have this lighting set before you start or as you go along because trying to do it after you have made the track can be very difficult to get right and parts could need to be remade
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  9. #29
    nannerdw's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    If you're making an outdoor track, try to use the sunlight shadows as much as possible, and use pointlights to light up the background areas. If you're placing a 1-sided object, such as a rock face, only the light hitting the visible surfaces will cast shadows. If you want realistic shadows from a one-sided object, you'll have to place another object above it to cast the shadow. The silo roof works really well for covering a large area in shadow, and it's also invisible from underneath. I used this technique for all of the cliff-face shadows in Shantytown.

    If you want to make sure that two light sources are not interfering with each other, temporarily set their brightness to max while you move them around, so it's easy to see the exact extent of their illumination.

    Also, remember to turn off the bike's headlight unless it really adds to the atmosphere of the track. You might even want to toggle the headlight off when entering will-lit areas.
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  10. #30
    Smeghead89's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: The Importance of Lighting in Tracks.

    Originally Posted by nannerdw
    If you're making an outdoor track, try to use the sunlight shadows as much as possible, and use pointlights to light up the background areas. If you're placing a 1-sided object, such as a rock face, only the light hitting the visible surfaces will cast shadows. If you want realistic shadows from a one-sided object, you'll have to place another object above it to cast the shadow. The silo roof works really well for covering a large area in shadow, and it's also invisible from underneath. I used this technique for all of the cliff-face shadows in Shantytown.

    If you want to make sure that two light sources are not interfering with each other, temporarily set their brightness to max while you move them around, so it's easy to see the exact extent of their illumination.

    Also, remember to turn off the bike's headlight unless it really adds to the atmosphere of the track. You might even want to toggle the headlight off when entering will-lit areas.
    iv used this technique too, i havent used a silo roof which (is a good idea) but i have used trees overhead and out of view to cast large shadows over areas and because of the nature of trees having no straight edges then the shadow blends off much more naturally, it also has patches of no shadow which can look good casting shadow on some objects and light on others plus you can get a nice effect with trees and sunlight sometimes casting a pattern of green lights onto the floor
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