TGERad - Radiosity

#1 yeah baby! when can we see it? Do I need to send a case of Corona?

#2 Heh yeah I'm currently knocking out a handful of smaller things myself just to keep sane and be able to say I got something concrrete accomplished.

#3 Cool, Joshua. I'll be interested to see how well FSRad performs during the mission lighting.

Which radiosity algorithm does that use again? I remember looking through it some time ago and noting that it was adaptive, but I wasn't able to follow the code quite well enough to figure out the radiosity technique it's using.

#4 I am initially approaching this as a full radiosity solution for Torque... that failing, map2dif will at least have it :)

Patented programmers "2 weeks"... could be shorter/longer...

-J

#5 Hey Josh,

What's that bottom right toolbar? Numega?

#6 Cool!

I'm playing around with nebula to keep sane until everything gets ironed out re:future plans.

#7 Awesome, Josh! I remember poking around asking about integrating this with Torque a while ago, glad someone's doing something about it. =)

#8 @Donavan: CVSIn CVS Integration Add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio

map2dif it is...

1) Changing the mission lighting is a large architectural change. It impacts the *rendering* system too much for me to do this right now... there are also considerations in the TS system, unless these are addressed the unified look this is suppose to achieve wouldn't happen anyway...

2) The terrain's 512x512 lightmap isn't high enough resolution for radiosity to matter much... increasing the terrains lightmap resolution get's crazy quickly and a better solution should be found... besides, the terrain looks pretty good in my opinion

3) FSRad is destructive to polygons that are fed to it (perhaps slicing)... I am going to have to compensate for this in map2dif... though in mission lighting we are talking about interiors and terrain where the geometry can't change as we are saving the lighting info seperately using the *existing* polys... again, large architectural change

4) The mission lighting is fast right now, and this could slow it down a lot... though, this is only an editing concern... and I am pretty sure quality vs speed controls wouldn't be a problem... ie. high quality when you go to do a final process before shipping...

Ideally there would be a unified lighting model that gets applied to all rendered elements... and be the same light model that the map2dif preprocess uses... this would really improve the overall look of Torque I think... a unified radiosity solution for instance, would have light spilling out of dif doorways and flooding the terrain around the entrance... maybe catching some dts shapes too using vertex lighting there...

Anyway... getting a better lighting system in map2dif was the primary goal, and in my opinion is where Torque needs the most improvement in it's lighting code... outside looks/performs pretty great (and that day/night stuff adds dynamics to the environment)... I can settle for rougher mission lighting butting up to interior radiosity based lighting I think

I would like to code this "right"... though my time and interfacing with an existing system is going to knock this around... a reoccuring theme in software development to be sure :)

-J

#9 Sounds cool, Im working on some interiors now. A subway station, so maybe i can flex it out with some ultra spooky lighting.

#10 mr_luc == official member of the Joshua Ritter fanclub.

#11 Looks very interesting Josh. Be sure to keep us updated, and I can't wait for the pretty pictures..

#12 This is the kind of improvement that justifies creating content for video games. Basicly the color of the textures will reflect light adding truelly immersive ambience

#13 Small update:

Can open worms everywhere. Everytime I try to pick one up it breaks in half :)

This is a bit harder than I first suspected...

EDIT:

A little later, cackling echoed thru the Minneapolis skyline...


-J

#14 LOL I assume an attaboy is in order?

#15 Attaboy!

#16 It's gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few bugs... and then screenshot time :)

-J

PS. Don't worry Beffy, not that... heh

#17 Ooo... Worms and bugs.... and a screenshot of them... Cool

#18 Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to bring Radiosity to Torque!!!!!!! TGERad is born!!!!! .... move over Quake III... muahahahaha

The top shot is with Torque's direct lighting... notice the black areas where the light just doesn't hit??? ick...

Every mapper knows that solution to this... Make the lights brighter (totally blowing out some areas) or add lots of little X-mas flavored lights everywhere... I was recently given a map with 1400 lights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wrong!!!

Use TGERad... the bottom screen is exactly the same scene, with no additional lights or settings, though it uses RADIOSITY!!!!

It looks very natural... even considering the horrible programmer lights... and there are piles of optons to control EXACTLY how the lighting for your interiors looks... from nice ambience to harsh shadows.. TGERad does it all!!!

You can have surfaces that emit light, surfaces that the reflect it, and you can control intensity/color of both emission and reflection.

Why is the radiosity version of the same scene so much lighter in the screenshot below??? I set the surfaces to be pretty reflective... and there you have it... the light naturally fills the scene... :)

Spooge and spit, my gawd it's PSYCHO!!!!!

Thanks Paul Nettle for FSRad!!!!

Enjoy!!!!,
-J

PS: I can't wait to see what artists can do with this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PSS: Notice how the light even bounces out to the window slits.. this is so great!!! :)

#19 wow that is awesome!

#20 Awesome! I asked for this a long time agao, and after some discussion the general idea was that it was too hard to implement into Torque. But here it is! ;)