|
|
   
   
Lighting
The Vicious Engine® uses path-tracing to light static environments. After placing light primitives in the level, each light source traces to each affected vertex and calculates the light value. The ray reflects and light values are calculated for affected vertices from the bounce. Once the light value for a particular vertex is calculated, it is stored in the vertex’s light component. This radiosity technique creates an authentic feel to the environment.
Light grids are used to dynamically light moving objects. Generally, a directional scene light and few point lights are sufficient to dynamically light entities and most static models. For dynamic entity shadows, the shadow is rendered to a texture. The affected geometry is drawn a second time with the shadow-texture and a projective texture matrix. Static geometry shadows are baked into the terrain and static geometry vertex colors.
Efficiency
The Vicious Engine® employs several strategies to find a balance of a highly detailed game environment and maximum rendering performance.
- Static geometry uses distance-based levels of detail (LODs) for rendering, with an unlimited number of levels possible.
- Terrain heightfields are handled by distance-visibility instead of LODs and can be combined with static geometry.
- Particle systems stop rendering at an artist-defined distance and can utilize one LOD.
- Level data, music, and cinematics can stream from the hardware media in real time during normal gameplay. The streaming occurs in the background, allowing uninterrupted gameplay.
Cool Stuff
A complete effects editor allows complex effect creation with particle systems, animation, lighting, and more. These components provide games with an extra punch, polishing it into an exciting, visually engaging world. Effects features include:
- Advanced particle system with particle attributes that are fully configurable, including lifetime, size, fade, orientation, gravity influence and more.
- Animated texture support for fire, smoke, and explosions.
- Configurable weather effects including rain, snow, and dust storms.
- Support for post-processing full-screen, frame buffer effects, including night vision, thermal vision, blur, and tinting per color channel.
- Support for advanced rendering features such as reflection, refraction, and glow
- Dynamic fog that is modifiable through script.
- Cartoon render with silhouette support.
- Split screen support.
- Picture-in-Picture support.
   
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
