Silverfall Peek #3

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Written by BuckGB on March 21st, 2007

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We mainly concentrated our efforts on the lighting system of the game, and more specifically on the shadowing. We did a lot of research on this at the very beginning of the project and in the range of techniques we had at our disposal, we decided to use the Spherical Harmonics. Guillaume Werlé, our lead graphic programmer, came up with a prototype showing us the ideas he had for how interior lights would be rendered, and told us that it would be great to have a game like this. Everyone on the team looked at the prototype, and we were stunned by the quality of what we saw; everybody's reaction was to say "okay, I want this."

Technically speaking, Spherical Harmonics allow us to know if a specific dot of the game - anywhere in the environment or on the characters - is visible from a light source. This allows us to shadow, and not light, our settings. The result is a visual atmosphere full of smooth shadows, allowing for a much more realistic look.

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