Platinum Arts Sandbox - Free 3D Game Maker Forum

For outside, natural lighting,

1. ambient should be set low..between 10 and 20; the default is usually good. It should never be set to 0 as there is no such thing as a perfect black, albedo=0,
material and thus no such thing as a perfect black shadow.

2. The skylight should be tinted very subtly the same color as the sky itself. A blue sky should be tinted slightly blue..a red sky should be tinted slightly red. The overall color of the chosen skybox should be a guide. Subtlety is key as it is easy to overdo it. The effect should be barely noticeable.
For night scenes, a dim blueish tint is good for starlight. Use actual lights for moons, etc., tinted slightly to the color those objects emit.
This should be done as skylight simulates the light scattered in the atmosphere.
Don't bother with a skylight if your world has no atmosphere like the moon.
Skylight should be blurred to disguise any shadow lines that the multiple light sources used by skylight might cause.

3. The sunlight should be slightly tinted to the color of the sun. This can change depending on the time of day. Early morning might be reddish whereas noonday sun should be vaguely yellowish. Other worlds might have different colored suns.

4. Fog should be used to simulate atmospheric scattering due to distance. The greater the amount of suspended water vapor and dust in the atmosphere, the greater the amount of haze/fog. It will always exist unless the world is in vacuum. The color tint should reflect any mood; blues cause the scene to feel cool or sterile, whereas warm colors make a scene feel warm and organic.

5 Any sunlight that streams through windows or doors should have subtle lights near the bright spot and colored the same as the color of the bright spot to simulate bounce lighting. A light spot on a red wall should be slightly tinted red, for example. The actual size and intensity of such light entities used to simulate indirect/bounce light sources should be chosen based on the bright_spot's intensity and often checked by using quicklight to ensure the desired effect is achieved.

Just my own thoughts and opinions on what works for me.

As for myself, I tend to set ambient to 10 or lower (basically to what you'd expect indoors), with skylight using half the sun's values (ie, if the sun is 255 224 96 then use 128 112 48).

it's worth mentioning that SVN has a 'fogdome', and that this can be tweaked/changed in the skies menu. as for what it is and does, it's basically a fog overlay for the skybox

Hirato,

I am trying to recreate Wolfenstein3D (the old dos version) and cannot figure out lighting. I can put torches on the walls and add a light source with colour and radius, but the torches are only supposed to lighten up a small area. (trying for realism) The rest of the area is fairly dark. Apart from adding a squillion torches, is there a better way to set the right "mood". The area is rock wall with earth floor with no access to external lighting. Several rooms with automatic doors and some short corridors. Sorry to be so vague. Any ideas?

Regards

J

yes, maybe you can ask that in another topic? (doesn't mean to hurt you, srry if it does)

to Johnno56:
The thing you really need is something that can light all textures exactly the same, no matter where the textures are (I think it's called a 'hemilight' but im not sure). I don't know whether PAS has hemilighting (we'll go with it) capabilities, you should probably find out.