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Day and Night System

Name:	Matt Vitelli
Date Posted:	May 15, 2008
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For the past few months, I've been actively pursuing terrain and skybox code to allow dynamic day and night cycles. Day and night cycles are important, especially in sandbox games. Currently, I've been getting some impressive results that are fairly inexpensive. Currently the code requires the use of a specific art pipeline. In time I plan on making the system completely automatic so developers are able to drop levels in and automatically generate the necessary media for the level. In the future, I also plan on having a per-surface detail mapping system allowing users to add as much detail as necessary to the scene. It would also be spiffy to implement a layers system similar to Id's tech 5.

Adam Beer has been extremely helpful in his testing, feedback, ideas, and thoughts. Below is a video he created using the new terrain and sky updates:

www.box.net/shared/xa4pvflcsc

Here is a YouTube video demonstrating the skybox system.

Here is a YouTube video demonstrating the terrain shadowing updates.

Recent Blog Posts

List:	07/29/08 - Shaders Galore! Texture-Space Diffusion, God Rays, and Light Extrusion Mapping! 05/15/08 - Day and Night System 09/27/07 - Illumina Screenshots! 08/14/07 - Forgotten Lands, Real-Time Ambient Occlusion, and Motion Blur! 08/03/07 - Illumina, Forgotten Lands, and Shaders!(Screenshot heavy) 11/08/06 - Various Tools and Projects (Screenshot Heavy) 09/16/06 - The Past Year

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mb (May 15, 2008 at 01:37 GMT)

Awesome. I hope this will be a resource or in the next update :) I'd love day/night cycle & layered textures for terrain.

Kory James (May 15, 2008 at 01:40 GMT)

This look great what type of terrain are you using ?

Matt Vitelli (May 15, 2008 at 01:43 GMT)

This is using Legacy. However, this could easily be ported to Atlas2 in a matter of minutes.

Kevin James (May 15, 2008 at 01:51 GMT)

I'm constantly impressed with what people do with Torque. Kudos Matt and Adam.

Michael Perry (May 15, 2008 at 02:42 GMT)

So...pretty...

Very cool stuff guys...can't wait to see more!

Todd Pickens (May 15, 2008 at 05:55 GMT)

Very very nice!

Daz (May 15, 2008 at 07:21 GMT)

Awesome Matt! I would love to play with this once it's done. Keep up the exceptional work, and thanks!

Matt Huston (May 15, 2008 at 12:11 GMT)

Very cool Matt, I know lots of people are going to look forward to this as a resource.

Chris Calef (May 15, 2008 at 21:27 GMT)

Nice!!

Jason Gossiaux (Jul 29, 2008 at 14:49 GMT)

Amazing work. Any updates you could share with us? I'm eagerly awaiting a way to get it, even if I have to pay!

Matt Vitelli (Jul 29, 2008 at 15:25 GMT)

Hi Jason, it's really problematic. I've used every technique I can think of to get the shaders re enabled in 1.72, but with no luck. The sky is rendered first on the draw list, so perhaps the problem lies there. It's definitely on my todo list though, and any successful changes I make I'll definitely update.

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