Sun light source

[Graf Zahl]

Portals only matter if geometry shadows come into play.

[Tormentor667]

Commenting this to keep track

[dpJudas]

I created a sunlighttest branch for this in the gzdoom repository. At the moment it uses a global sunlight source that can be calibrated with some CVARs.

The visuals on that branch make it pretty clear that we can't apply this ever to old maps (not that it was suggested, just saying). We also probably can't get away with a single global setting - I think we probably need to apply it on a per sector basis or something.

The good news is that at least with the test map Nash provided it gives a pretty good visual improvement.

Edit: The sunlight on the test branch also doesn't do diminished light on the sunlight. It probably needs to do that in a final version or the contrast between the back (sector light) and front (sun) won't remain the same there.

Edit 2: after toying a bit with it with fake contrast turned off, and with the gl_sunlight_str set to 0.25, it actually looks better than fake contrast in some situations. I do wonder how that will look once it takes diminished light into account.

[Nash]

@dpJudas sprites seem to be unaffected by the additional sun light...

[dpJudas]

Hmm yes, forgot to apply them to the sprites. Not sure how they should apply, though, since they billboard - could of course use the angle of the billboard, but would that look good?

[Nash]

Actually, my bad - I had accidentally set the intensity too high during my tests when I reported to you. You should probably revert that 50% brightness sprite fix for now, it doesn't look good... sorry!

[dpJudas]

Figured as much, but seeing is believing.

[Tormentor667]

Can you share screenshots?

[Jaxxoon R]

Seconded, this interests me greatly.

[Major Cooke]

This is a highly experimental feature. I wouldn't expect screenshots for a while.

[dpJudas]

Here's two screenshots showing the feature (thanks to Nash for creating the test map for this)

[Graf Zahl]

I'm still not sold on making this solely a sector property. I think it'd be better to have sunlight as a sky property as well that automatically applies to all sectors with the given sky as its ceiling. Otherwise it might become too clumsy to edit.

[Major Cooke]

I need the sectors version for Doomwinia. The terrain takes on different colors.
Here's a video of Darwinia (mute the sound, I have an annoying sound pack installed) with different colored patches of terrain.
(Hell, you don't even need to play it -- you can see the different colors up front on the preview!)

[Tormentor667]

I don't get the difference between the screenshot and normal fullbright sectors

[Jaxxoon R]

The fact that there is any shading at all aside from SSAO on those models is a big difference. The thing, I think, that makes it not look so good (other than the gamma setting in those shots), is that there isn't any noticeable darkening on the sides opposite the sun source.