NOTICE: My VPS's harddrive got wiped so the pictures are down for now, sorry for the inconvenience.

Hey guys I'm the new dev that will be working on the graphics for StarSonata, nice to meet you! I've stayed up late polishing the lighting system for the suns vs ships and I thought I'd share some teaser shots with you. Bear in mind everything is still a work in progress and I'd love to get everyones opinion on everything so that we can keep you guys satisfied with how it looks. I can't please everybody (That's impossible), but I'll try to please as many as I can, majority rules in this case.

Now, Jey told me he reckons the Ambient light is a bit too low (That's the light that the ships get when theres nothing else lighting them, just so they're visible). Now I know most people used to client1 will probably share this opinion as they're used to everything looking nice and bright. I on the other hand like the dark-spacy feel and think the low ambient light creates a more sci-fi atmosphere. This is why I'd like to get everyones opinions on this matter, do you prefer bright, easy-on-the-eyes ships or a dark moody look with exagerated light effects (That's more or less the look you'll see
in the upcoming shots)?. Please vote with your opinion.

Here're the shots:

NOTE: USE THE SCROLLBAR! THAT WAY! -->













Cheers,

BlindSide

Note from Pip: He's only asking about the lights. We don't need comments about anything else, since its all a work in progress. I will DELETE any posts that are not about lighting. If you want to comment about something else in the shots, use misc.

Could we have adaptive display corresponding to night vision? I.e., when you are close to bright light sources, you would see very little ambient light, but when you're in deep space (with no shooting or similar stuff) the ambient light would be increased, but the display would be more monochrome. It could be really cool to also need some time to adapt, i.e. if you've been cruising in pitch-black space for a long time and then you're suddenly attacked, it would be "blindingly" bright for the first few seconds.

Going with the offered choices is for wusses!

REMEMBER PEOPLE, he's only asking about the lights. We don't need comments about anything else, since its all a work in progress. I will DELETE any posts that are not about lighting. If you want to comment about something else in the shots, use misc.

I dont ever want to even for a fraction of a second be looking for my ship on my screen. That little bit of confusion could mean the loss of a gg, or missing a chance at something. I want to see my ship, nice and bright, in the middle of my screen at all times.

I do very much so like the lighting from suns though, nicely done. Hope to get to play with it soon on test.

-ERMAN

Indeed, brightness ftw. I used to fly a porpoise, and hated it because half the time I wouldn't know what direction my ship was pointing in. Not being able to see your ship would be potentially deadly on a run, or in a high-end DG.

The lightning looks very nice, but how does the lightning look in a DG with 6 of those damaging, red suns?

in screenshots 1 and 3 there appears to be no lighting from those suns with the radial design....

That is true... you get confused you die, fast... really really fast...

So if this is what it would eventually end up as I would definately want something like the one where you cruise among the fuzz. Stands out.

The dark stuff is nice, but it would only work if we had some markers around the ships, you know like when you target something. Only these would need to be active all the time.

Something like an overlay that you could toggle... however I suspect it would be always turned on for most people making it redundant in the first place. So give us light.

There is, its just very faint. Its the brighter white spots on those ships.

how about make it thats its a options to have, in the options menue .... sorry for the selling

Dram has a point. Shouldn't be too hard to just have a scale like for volume you can adjust in menu.

Its just whatever, either way there is pro's and cons, I wont care either way

well ambient lighting is already low as abovementioned
Id like the dark look you've showed above; its really.. really nice.. and its not even hard to see the ships in-game now so to add this would be great.
no poll needed for this one

I like it, but for me i think there is a little to much color change, if they just had a tint to them and the lighting effects i would be fine, don't really want all the ships in a gal flashing different colors all the time as they pass suns. I like the intensity of the lighting though, but i think some ships might need their own tweeking on the lighting so they don't dissapear. Just don't want my ship to be some crazy strobe light.

To me it seems odd that the green glow from the sun is a completely different colour from the sun itself.
The Dark sun's glow looks nice though.