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Farsight Studios
The Pinball Arcade / Farsight Studios
Platform Specific
Playstation 4
Pinball Arcade "Coming Soon to PS4" Trailer on PSN
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<blockquote data-quote="smbhax" data-source="post: 99062" data-attributes="member: 396"><p>I think one problem they're up against with this dynamic lighting system is a technical one: while they now have dynamic lights that can illuminate the table around them, they don't seem to have developed the important corollary: dynamic shadows. Without the ability to have these lights cast shadows, they cannot, for instance, have general illumination lighting across a large area, at least not if it's from lights that may switch off in certain modes, because the unshadowed lighting would just cast itself in a big circle, lighting everything nearby, even stuff on the other side of barriers and so forth--massive lighting bleed-through, in other words. And without shadows, large bright lighting will produce a flattening effect--you can't cast shadows beneath things, for instance, so there's no easy way for the eye to see elevation; you can see this happen beneath the neon strip when it lights up on CV, for instance. You can see very faint pre-rendered, PS3-style lightmapped shadows here and there, but those are fixed shadows that don't respond to the dynamic lights, so they can't do too much with those or it will look weird.</p><p></p><p>It looks like they've tried to constrain themselves to small spot illumination, for the most part, to avoid horrible dynamic lighting bleed-through, but that can easily leave large unlit areas, so maybe the spotlights above the playfield inserts are their attempt to jazz up areas that would otherwise be left weirdly dark by the small general illumination lights.</p><p></p><p>I don't know if that's the right way to go--in any case, the result is pretty garish and unrealistic in action. The lack of dynamic shadows, if they do indeed lack them, is a very significant shortcoming, visually (just think how important those pre-rendered animated shadows stretching across the playfield are to the look of those Pro Pinball lighting demo shots), but you could probably still make a decent-looking dynamically lit table without dynamic shadows, if you were careful and subtle about it. But it doesn't look like they're taking a subtle approach.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="smbhax, post: 99062, member: 396"] I think one problem they're up against with this dynamic lighting system is a technical one: while they now have dynamic lights that can illuminate the table around them, they don't seem to have developed the important corollary: dynamic shadows. Without the ability to have these lights cast shadows, they cannot, for instance, have general illumination lighting across a large area, at least not if it's from lights that may switch off in certain modes, because the unshadowed lighting would just cast itself in a big circle, lighting everything nearby, even stuff on the other side of barriers and so forth--massive lighting bleed-through, in other words. And without shadows, large bright lighting will produce a flattening effect--you can't cast shadows beneath things, for instance, so there's no easy way for the eye to see elevation; you can see this happen beneath the neon strip when it lights up on CV, for instance. You can see very faint pre-rendered, PS3-style lightmapped shadows here and there, but those are fixed shadows that don't respond to the dynamic lights, so they can't do too much with those or it will look weird. It looks like they've tried to constrain themselves to small spot illumination, for the most part, to avoid horrible dynamic lighting bleed-through, but that can easily leave large unlit areas, so maybe the spotlights above the playfield inserts are their attempt to jazz up areas that would otherwise be left weirdly dark by the small general illumination lights. I don't know if that's the right way to go--in any case, the result is pretty garish and unrealistic in action. The lack of dynamic shadows, if they do indeed lack them, is a very significant shortcoming, visually (just think how important those pre-rendered animated shadows stretching across the playfield are to the look of those Pro Pinball lighting demo shots), but you could probably still make a decent-looking dynamically lit table without dynamic shadows, if you were careful and subtle about it. But it doesn't look like they're taking a subtle approach. [/QUOTE]
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Home
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Farsight Studios
The Pinball Arcade / Farsight Studios
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Pinball Arcade "Coming Soon to PS4" Trailer on PSN
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