Dynamic sky

[Kaurava]

Is there anything this guy can't do?

[Spec]

I'd agree with the idea of having the sun only move for a couple of hours and then stop. If the round really takes longer than, say, 4 hours, then the sun will just stay at the end of it's "cycle". People won't pay much attention to it, unless they really play the same map for 12 hours or so.

So, if it's not too much work*, doing that for dusk/dawn set maps might be quite cool, because it's gameplay relevant and people won't notice that static shadows don't actually move.

*It IS too much work probably

[Tim270]

Not really a huge problem if they are only going to change a few hours anyhow. The difference between dynamic and lightmap I assume will be negligible at best from only a few hours of dynamic time of day?

[Celestial1]

I'd agree with the idea of having the sun only move for a couple of hours and then stop. If the round really takes longer than, say, 4 hours, then the sun will just stay at the end of it's "cycle". People won't pay much attention to it, unless they really play the same map for 12 hours or so.

Round timers is what will make it only last 4 hours. The game ends, regardless of the status of the round, at 4 hours; this means that the sky's cycle for the map only need be 4 hours long, maximum. Smaller maps, something like Asad Khal, where the expected round time might only be 1.5 hours, the cycle can be shortened to be most accurate in the early times of the round, though this could cause an anomaly of lighting later in the round, if it were to last that long. Perhaps the cycle could be set to progress to a time, then stall at that time (ie. Only goes for 2 hour, and at 2 hours it reaches the point where the shadows and sun match).

That's definitely not to say it isn't a lot of work, just that it's feasible to do with static shadows if desired.

[Mosquill]

Ok, first of all, this is WIP, so keep that in mind. Secondly, it IS bf2. Thirdly, dynamic sky's main purpose is to serve as a base for the weather system I'll be working on, day/night cycle is just a bonus ability.

I've already thought about the lightmaps issue months ago, and I have a few workarounds in mind. One of them is to only have ambient occlusion on the lightmaps without shadows from the sun, the sun shadows will be rendered via dynamic shadows. The dynamic shadows draw distance can be increased to 400m (50m currently), and its resolution can also be increased. With this method you'll have both lightmaps and working sun shadows on statics.

Also, like some people have already mentioned, lightmaps won't be a problem if the sky only changes for just a few hours. Which btw, is what i intended it to be like anyway.

[Brummy]

This is sweet.

[Rudd]

Mosquill;1368467']Ok, first of all, this is WIP, so keep that in mind. Secondly, it IS bf2. Thirdly, dynamic sky's main purpose is to serve as a base for the weather system I'll be working on, day/night cycle is just a bonus ability.

I've already thought about the lightmaps issue months ago, and I have a few workarounds in mind. One of them is to only have ambient occlusion on the lightmaps without shadows from the sun, the sun shadows will be rendered via dynamic shadows. The dynamic shadows draw distance can be increased to 400m (50m currently), and its resolution can also be increased. With this method you'll have both lightmaps and working sun shadows on statics.

Also, like some people have already mentioned, lightmaps won't be a problem if the sky only changes for just a few hours. Which btw, is what i intended it to be like anyway.

what kind of performance impact does this have?

[Mosquill]

what kind of performance impact does this have?

Somewhere around 0 I think, although I didn't test performance so I can't be sure.

[maarit]

just kashan with this and long rounds are no longer problem to anyone.
good job

[myles]

Thirdly, dynamic sky's main purpose is to serve as a base for the weather system I'll be working on, day/night cycle is just a bonus ability.

Weather whats next?

omg weather sounds so cool

[ytman]

Are shadows rendered server side or client side? If its client side I don't see a problem, since if players can't handle it with thier systems... they turn it off.

[Tim270]

Are shadows rendered server side or client side? If its client side I don't see a problem, since if players can't handle it with thier systems... they turn it off.

Its more of a question if you can handle a large amount of statics with dynamic shadows at the same time, rather than if it can be done.

See a few posts previous - there has not been any extensive performance testing to see if it does or does not strongly impact on performance.



Could shadow resolution be linked to LOD's?

[ytman]

But wouldn't disabling shadows eliminate any drop in performance?

[Stoic Sentinel]

But wouldn't disabling shadows eliminate any drop in performance?

But then it'd look like utter sh!t.

[Tim270]

But wouldn't disabling shadows eliminate any drop in performance?

Well obviously...

It will be done client side, but that is not the concern. The concern is having shadows that are dynamic (move) as opposed to 'baked' (predetermined shadows that are baked onto the terrain and cannot move) shadows like all buildings in BF2 use. Without these baked shadows, it looks really crappy. So the real question is can bf2 buildings use dynamic shadows with acceptable performance, as if time of day is enabled, the shadow is going to move.

but to be honest you could get what, 3-4(?) hours movement without that much obvious shadow misalignments?

[LithiumFox]

If the sky was real-time, and the shadows were static, the sky could only progress 4 hrs total. Setting the shadows to the middle of the cycle would mean that you would have reasonably accurate shadows for the middle 2 hours of a round, and the 1st and 4th hours would only be ever so slightly off (or, setting the shadows to the most noticed setting; eg. Silent Eagle's shadows would be placed for nearly the end of the cycle so that while it's still dark the shadows aren't seen anyway and are only seen when they are appropriate).

It wouldn't be noticeable during a game, imo. I don't think it'd need to be any faster than real-time, either, because 4hrs can still make for an interesting difference in shadows and atmosphere (Barracuda would go from an early, dark, dawn, to late, orange dawn like it is now.)

which would be epic for certain maps like silent eagle. D:

[RedRyder]

This is EPIC!!! Awesome work, brilliant coder.

[Zoddom]

WWWWWWWWWWWAOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOAOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH








i came, too .....

[RedAlertSF]

Mosquill, you are a god. No, you are the God.


I'm not gonna say anything else, as this is this is so awesome that words just can't describe it.

[masterceo]

Mosquill, I've got a question: the way nighttime works in your video is very realistic, however it's not pitch black so the visibility, even tho it's limited, is still pretty good. This makes players independent of NVGs, they could use them if they felt like it. Therefore, if you could tweak the light source a bit would it be possible to obtain a fully working night map without using NVGs? I know night maps have been discussed to death before, but your video proves that it is possible to make a decent night map that would be playable.