Sprite lighting and camera angles

What's the camera angle and the lighting used for the ship sprites in the EVN stock scenario.. I know i've seen it around here someplace, but I can't seem to find it.

I'll tell you as soon as I get home.

Dave @ ATMOS

Well, that's the horse's mouth right there...

Main light: Pure white, 100% brightness -- located at (if looking at ship from Nova perspective going up the screen):

• X = 100 (left 100 units)

• Y = 100 (up 100 units)

• Z = 100 (forward 100 units)

In other words, top-left corner of screen.

You should also turn off any ambient lighting, and add a fill light (pure white, 20-25% brightness) at X = -100 (right 100), Y = 50 (up 50), Z = 0.

All lights should be targeted at the ship (the middle of the scene, coordinates 0, 0, 0)

best always,

Dave @ ATMOS

What kind of shadows do you use? Does the fill light have a shadow?
Also, what are the camera angles for looking at a ship?

I guessed 45 degrees for the angle. Perhaps it's the shadow on the main lightsource, but I end up with a lot more black shadows than the in-game ships.

I'm using area shading. Should I turn it off?

This post has been edited by Insomniac : 21 August 2005 - 08:29 PM

This is a really old topic, but this needs spelling out.

The fill light casts no shadows, and is a spotlight of cone size just large enough to fit the entire vehicle. The main light casts simple, hard shadows, and is a directional light.

Do not use area lights or radiosity if you're trying to match Nova look and feel.

@insomniac, on Aug 21 2005, 07:58 PM, said in Sprite lighting and camera angles:

I'm using area shading. Should I turn it off?

Oh yes!

First of all you risk getting very soft shadows which will look kind of weird, or you'll get shadows which are equivalent to hard shadows, but that take 50 times longer to calculate.

edit:
You might get something more real looking with area shadows, but anti aliased hard shadows will unless your ship is gigantic look similar if not exactly the same.

This post has been edited by Modesty Blaise : 22 May 2008 - 01:19 PM

Modesty Blaise! How are you? Well, I trust?

Back to rendering: you may find you need to tweak the lighting on the fill light to be a bit higher, depending on your surfacing. That's just fine; render whatever looks right.

@pipeline, on May 22 2008, 05:56 AM, said in Sprite lighting and camera angles:

Do not use...radiosity if you plan on using your computer for anything else in the following months.

I fixed it for you...

Indeed. One of the reasons I didn't use radiosity on Nova.

Mind you, machines have become a lot faster since 2000, and I've now got a good set of radiosity settings that don't take forever.