2010-12-29, 09:14 PM
I stared at this probably for the best of the entire afternoon.
The lights with HDR look good as long as you have some constant attenuation. 1 is a good number because it means the light never gets brighter than its colour. If you don't have any, the light approaches infinity, and without the non-HDR clamp at 1.0 that quickly gets out of hand. The painful thing though is with the constant attenuation, the diffuse model light can actually become less to non existent the closer you get to the source (see screenshot) which is totally counter-intuitive!!
The reason it's possible is because the only factor modulating the light closer to the source is the angle of incidence (FYI: I may have just made that term up) ... but anyway, it turns out the reason the top flat surface on the lamp is not lit, while the lower one is, has to do with the angle of the vertices relative the light source (for a point light) ... since the lighting normals on the flat surfaces are pointing due up, the wider the angle the brighter the light. There must not be a vertex in the center of the top dish or it would be maximally lit, because it would be as wide as can be basically.
So if you pull the flame up higher it actually rectifies things somewhat, though that's probably not the best way to go. I'm hoping further examination will yield more natural results, but I'd like to get something in the can so I can be done with this business by next week-ish.
I'm actually considering adding a quick extension to make the player shorter just so they can't see the top of the pedestal. Now that I know the player is supposed to be a short girl, you really do seem too tall compared to everything else. Though I worry about being short making some things like the pedestal items rest on seem awkward. Though frankly if you're short you're short. And that might add a little atmosphere.
The lights with HDR look good as long as you have some constant attenuation. 1 is a good number because it means the light never gets brighter than its colour. If you don't have any, the light approaches infinity, and without the non-HDR clamp at 1.0 that quickly gets out of hand. The painful thing though is with the constant attenuation, the diffuse model light can actually become less to non existent the closer you get to the source (see screenshot) which is totally counter-intuitive!!
The reason it's possible is because the only factor modulating the light closer to the source is the angle of incidence (FYI: I may have just made that term up) ... but anyway, it turns out the reason the top flat surface on the lamp is not lit, while the lower one is, has to do with the angle of the vertices relative the light source (for a point light) ... since the lighting normals on the flat surfaces are pointing due up, the wider the angle the brighter the light. There must not be a vertex in the center of the top dish or it would be maximally lit, because it would be as wide as can be basically.
So if you pull the flame up higher it actually rectifies things somewhat, though that's probably not the best way to go. I'm hoping further examination will yield more natural results, but I'd like to get something in the can so I can be done with this business by next week-ish.
I'm actually considering adding a quick extension to make the player shorter just so they can't see the top of the pedestal. Now that I know the player is supposed to be a short girl, you really do seem too tall compared to everything else. Though I worry about being short making some things like the pedestal items rest on seem awkward. Though frankly if you're short you're short. And that might add a little atmosphere.