Animondays: Adding Some Atmosphere (Literally and Figuratively)

The Subtle Magic of Distance Fog

http://youtu.be/uesoM-fDghA
from Elemental Forums

One of the 3 main design pillars being tackled for Fallen Enchantress is 'The World'. Wildlands, randomly generated maps, more quests/lairs/resources/creatures...we've taken all the feedback from WoM to ensure FE delivers with some really engaging worlds. When you start a new game, half the fun will be simply exploring the land!

On the visual side, a simple piece of technology that we'll be utilizing to make the world feel more magical is the old-school trick of 'atmospheric perspective' or 'distance fog'. Early 3D systems would use this as a crutch for pathetic draw distances (I'm looking at you, N64) but you can't deny that it adds a thickness to the air...a ethereal quality to the environment....that players want when exploring a fantasy world.

The challenge in Fallen Enchantress is that the main map allows players to pan between countless terrain types seamlessly. We deal with this by interpolating (animating) colors and distance fog values based on camera location and what type of environment is being looked at. And to keep this from interfering with the gameplay, it really only needs to take place in the upper 1/3rd of the screen.





The end result is a more magical and fantastic feel to the world. Instead of simply talking about the heavy post-cataclysmic fog that looms, we now get to show it!

113,084 views 31 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Nice.  Love getting peeks behind the curtain.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Holy @#$@!

This is great! Thanks!

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

The "god rays" are pretty cool looking.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, the sunrays look great wandering across the landscape.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Agreed, the rays from the sun make for a great addition to the atmosphere. Now, any chance their color can be chanced in game by events/spells.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm still hoping for a turn-based game that is snowing during some turns.  Any chance of that?  I thought maybe I saw a few falling snow particles high up in the atmosphere in one of the shots...

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Trojasmic, reply 6
I'm still hoping for a turn-based game that is snowing during some turns.  Any chance of that?  I thought maybe I saw a few falling snow particles high up in the atmosphere in one of the shots...

 

I am hoping that the game will be fully mod able, with indeed an option for doing such an event. As a whole, Elemental had a problem of not being fully mod able- I remember that in 1.1 I and a some other guys wanted to make a mod, but had many problems with Elemental not being fully mod able (might be in a better shape now, not sure). I believe that making Fallen Enchantress as mod able as possible will only yield good results with players modding everything.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

More environmental particle effects should be easilly modable...they spawn based on some rare props that are based on the terrain type, so they can be modded in anywhere a tile design can be placed :)

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm hoping that we can have access to all the information needed for any decision we have to make and not have the screen frozen with only one menu present, having to use memory to decide your choice. I know this has nothing to do with fog or atmosphere but that's my hope.B)

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Looks good, but where is the Blood and fantasy violence i was warned about in the first seconds? 8O ;)

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lantros, reply 10
but where is the Blood and fantasy violence i was warned about in the first seconds?
 ;)  I'll make sure to make up for it in my next vid.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting BoogieBac, reply 11
I'll make sure to make up for it in my next vid.

 

I´ll remind you of that. ;)

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lantros, reply 12

Quoting BoogieBac, reply 11 I'll make sure to make up for it in my next vid.

 

I´ll remind you of that.

 

hey now, fog could really be an air elemental performing a violent act...

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

I am affraid that I'm gonna spend 80% of time at the cloth map, so the fog (isn't it actually decreasing the FPS?) will be nice but seldom watched feature.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

I've missed animondays. Thanks for bringing them back and with an awesome vid as well.

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top


  When you start a new game, half the fun will be simply exploring the land!

Yesyesyes!

Unrelated question: Are you making the cloth map prettier as well?

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

Looks nice.  The props mentioned should be fun for creating all kinds of interesting effects (for weather, spells, or places of interest).  Might be able to tie one into the spells the buff and debuff the cities. Could have patches of roiling mist too.  There could also be some applications if they can be used on a tac map.

 

The mountains look to be predominately of the rolling type.  Will there also be soaring peaks or sharp drops- or is that something to tie into a place of interest only.  Perhaps some kind of prop(s) that could (not on all) be centered on the peak to give them some more variation in appearence.  Then if the elevation is dropped such as with a spell, you could remove the prop when the elevation drops to passable.

Reply #18 from Elemental Forums Top

Looks pretty cool.

 

I am liking the look of E:FE so far.

A lot more character it seems.

Glad to hear it's easily moddable as well.

Win/win.

 

Reply #19 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting flymar, reply 14
(isn't it actually decreasing the FPS?
Naw, any stuttering in the vid is form the fact that I was in debug with FOW completely uncovered (while recording)...the calulations for this effect are really minimal.

Quoting Magog_AoW, reply 16
Are you making the cloth map prettier as well?
I believe we'll be tweaking the cloth map, but our main visual focus is on making the main game looking better.

Quoting crystlshake, reply 17
Will there also be soaring peaks or sharp drops- or is that something to tie into a place of interest only.
We played with ways to pinch the verts in such a way to give some sharpness to the mountains, but it ended up looking really cheap  :(  IIRC there are some new terrain types that will allow for sheer mountainsides, though, which could be used in conjunction with tiledesigns to make some cool looking mountain peaks.

 

Reply #20 from Elemental Forums Top

I'll tell you a story about Heroes 5.

 

A good game. It has a problem which I believe is not a problem at all, but it freaks me out. It always has fog in upper part of screen if you don't zoom. If you play on 16:9 screen 1/3 of screen is fogged. Very frustrating. So guys, be cautious. And add option to turn off fog altogether.

Reply #21 from Elemental Forums Top

I think most of these new GFX improvements will be implemented alongside an option to turn it off...though I hope it won't ever come to that :)

Reply #22 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Buladelu, reply 20
I'll tell you a story about Heroes 5.

 

A good game. It has a problem which I believe is not a problem at all, but it freaks me out. It always has fog in upper part of screen if you don't zoom. If you play on 16:9 screen 1/3 of screen is fogged. Very frustrating. So guys, be cautious. And add option to turn off fog altogether.

 

I'm playing through the HoMM V campaigns with maxed graphics (I think, the options are a bit strange) on 1920x1080 and I don't see this fog you're talking about.

Reply #23 from Elemental Forums Top

Any chance we could see that video without the black screen across the bottom half?

Reply #24 from Elemental Forums Top

Hey Boogie, since you seem to be the man in charge of art and graphics, can I make a couple of small requests for FE?

  • Please improve the available postures on the unit cards. Many of the current postures in WoM are extremely awkward.
  • Please increase the polygon count on characters where / when possible - Especially the faces!

Looking forward to future updates!

Reply #25 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting BoogieBac, reply 19


We played with ways to pinch the verts in such a way to give some sharpness to the mountains, but it ended up looking really cheap    IIRC there are some new terrain types that will allow for sheer mountainsides, though, which could be used in conjunction with tiledesigns to make some cool looking mountain peaks.


 

Sounds like what I was thinking. :) You could make a 'peak cap' tile design prop that could place on the peak (random on locations with altitude above a given height or when there is a drastic altitude change).  Say like 15% chance that an impassible mountain tile will have a prop spawn on it to varry the skyline.