2385: What a Difference a Light Makes

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A fairly quick one tonight as I’m suddenly very tired, but I’ll make it a “Pete’s RPG Maker Game Teaser” post just to make up for it, or something.

I thought I’d talk a little about lighting effects, because they make a huge difference to the overall look and feel of a game (or part of a game’s setting) and can add a lot to the overall personality of something you’re making.

More than anything, lighting effects can be a huge contributing factor in ensuring your game doesn’t look like “just another RPG Maker game”, which is by far the most common criticism of games made with RPG Maker. Hey, you provide people with tools, they’re gonna use them, sometimes lazily.

Anyway. Yes. So far as I’m concerned, the best ways to make your game not look like “just another RPG Maker game” without actually replacing the built-in graphics is a combination of fiddling with lighting effects (and screen tints to go with them) and tweaking the user interface so it’s no longer recognisable as the default RPG Maker battle system. (Of course, there’s nothing wrong with just using the default bits and bobs while you’re learning, but once you start feeling ambitious, it’s a good idea to try and put your own personal stamp on the project, and the easiest way to do that is through careful selection of audio-visual assets.)

So here are a few comparison screenshots of a map in the RPG Maker editor, which doesn’t show lighting, and in the game itself (which also features elements of the UI).

Here’s how a security computer room looks in the editor. (The checkerboard background means there’s nothing there. If you set up a parallax background, it will appear where the checkerboard is; otherwise if will simply render as black in the game.)

Screenshot 2016-08-01 02.25.08

And here it is in game, using a lighting plugin for adjustable, colour-able light radiuses wherever you like on your maps. Makes some really nice atmospheric effects.

Screenshot 2016-08-01 02.26.40

Here’s a house (currently with no door, because I haven’t made the inside yet) in the editor:

Screenshot 2016-08-01 02.28.14

And here it is in game, the simple addition of a transparent “sunbeams” overlay image giving it a bit more life:

Screenshot 2016-08-01 02.29.04

Here’s the edge of a swamp in the editor:

Screenshot 2016-08-01 02.27.45

And here it is in game, featuring a moving “mist” overlay image, plus a change to the screen tint that gives it a slight purple hue as well as desaturating the colours a bit:

Screenshot 2016-08-01 02.29.37

Finally, here’s part of a forest labyrinth in the editor:

Screenshot 2016-08-01 02.28.27

And here’s the dramatically different presentation in game, featuring an adjusted screen tint and a tiled overlay to simulate the leaf canopy blocking out sunlight:

Screenshot 2016-08-01 02.30.26

I know to all the jaded pros out there it probably still looks like “just another RPG Maker game”, but given that I’m mainly using this project to experiment with the software and see how easy it is to put a complete experience together, I’m happy with the twists on the standard look and feel I’ve got going on so far.

More teasers in the coming weeks.

2087: Virtual Photography

I’ve been fascinated by the idea of “virtual photography” for quite some time now. For those wondering what on Earth I’m talking about, I’m referring to the idea of creating aesthetically pleasing screenshots using video games as the base medium, but sometimes involving editing software to touch them up a bit or get rid of some of the inevitable glitches you find in polygon-based games.

A lot of modern games are embracing their photo-realistic nature by including a photo mode right there in the game itself; these modes often include numerous realistic filters and settings that work like an actual camera, as well as, often, an enhanced version of the game engine that sacrifices framerate in the name of visual fidelity, since virtual photography is more concerned with the quality of still images than fluidity of movement.

What I’ve found more interesting over the years, though, is the ability of games to let us photograph things we simply wouldn’t be able to in reality. Fantastic structures, stylised characters, improbable situations, that sort of thing. And as such, although I like the idea of photo modes in stuff like Forza Motorsport and its ilk, I’m inevitably drawn much more towards games that allow you to photograph characters and fantastic environments rather than cars. Nothing against cars, of course; I’m just more interested in people and places.

Second Life

A few years back, I spent quite a lot of time in the social/creative MMO Second Life. I was going through some difficult stuff at the time, and the people I met in there helped me through it a great deal — more than they perhaps knew. To my shame, I haven’t been back for quite some time and I don’t know how many of them would remember me now — it’s been a good five years or so since I logged in, I think — but I have fond memories from that time, and pleasingly, I have a visual record of many of those fond memories.

Early on in my time “on the Grid”, as Second Life players called it, I developed a fascination with photographing people’s avatars. Since your avatar was a reflection of your personality in Second Life — you could change appearance at will, and there was no “level-locked” equipment or anything; you just had to create, find or purchase items — I found this to be an interesting means of coming to understand various people. Above you can see one Kade Klata, someone who was a great friend to me during the aforementioned difficult times, and someone who got me into this whole virtual photography thing in the first place.

Kade disappeared off the Grid one day and I was never sure where she went; wherever you are, Kade, I hope you’re happy, and I hope you know you touched my life for the better.

This was an early experiment with using heavily stylised filters to smooth off the rough edges of Second Life’s graphics. This particular image was taken in a region called “Botanical”, which was renowned for having beautifully constructed scenery. Worthy of note is the fact that all the buildings, scenery and objects in Second Life are constructed by the “players”, so someone had spent a lot of time on this place; it seemed only fitting to immortalise it somehow.

I normally hate taking pictures of myself, but even though I loosely modelled my Second Life avatar on myself, I actually enjoyed putting myself into virtual photographs. This image was in a moody area called “Templum Ex Obscurum”; I forget what its actual purpose was — perhaps just to look pretty — but I was pleased with how this shot came out, and even more pleased with the fancy lighting I managed to create while figuring out how Photoshop worked.

I don’t mind admitting that when I was most involved in Second Life, I was somewhat emotionally fragile. One of the things I liked most about that virtual world when I was in it, though, was the fact that there were all manner of ways to express yourself. This image, taking alongside one “Rylan Carling”, who graciously agreed to come and model for me, was actually rather cathartic to create. (That’s “me” in the background; by this point, I’d been given something of a virtual makeover by a friend.)

…Yeah, I was pretty emo around that time. (Hell, I still am; I still like this image and what it symbolised when I was putting it together.) Anyway, enough of that; if you want to see more images from that time, take a peek at my long-abandoned Flickr account.

Final Fantasy XIV

The inherent drama in a role-playing game makes for some great “photos”, assuming you can time pressing that screenshot button correctly. Like this:

Or this:

And then, of course, like Second Life, there’s the self-expression element of everyone’s avatars thanks to the “Glamour” system, whereby you can make one piece of gear look like another.

This image is pretty special to me; it’s our whole Free Company meeting for a “group photo” shortly before the release of the first expansion pack Heavensward.

Custom Maid 3D 2

And finally, it would be remiss of me to talk about virtual photography without mentioning Custom Maid 3D 2, which I introduced to you all the other day. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the “photographs” I’ve taken using this are, shall we say, not entirely suitable for publication on this particular blog (I have a few standards!) but, well, here’s a few that I feel I probably can just about get away with…

The thing that’s impressed me most about CM3D2 so far is the fact that it’s the closest I’ve seen 3D graphics get to 2D art. The character models, the art style, the outlining, the cel-shading and the expressiveness of the faces — all of those things combine to create something that is not at all “realistic”, of course, but which is a very convincing recreation of the idealised anime style.

As you’d expect from something with the word Custom in its title, the character creation system in CM3D2 is pretty astounding, allowing you to customise pretty much anything from face and body shape to eye style and whether or not the character has one or two of those cute little “fangs” you sometimes see anime girls depicted with. You can even set how heavy their boobs are. And choose their clothes, obviously. Dressing your maids up is one of the most fun parts of the game that doesn’t involve doing lewd things.

Even the lewd bits are eminently suitable for virtual photography, though, since there are a number of “actions” that simply pose rather than… you know… do stuff. Combine these poses with the control you have over their costumes as well as the camera control mod that allows seriously precise positioning of your viewpoint plus the wonderful ability to make the characters look at the camera on command (assuming it wouldn’t be physically impossible) and you have a virtual photo studio that’s a whole lot of fun to play around with.

Games are art, yo.

#oneaday Day 828: It’s Time to Get Over the Graphics Thing

I read this piece on Game Informer tonight. It made me cross. If you can’t be bothered to read it yourself, the gist of the piece is that Xenoblade Chronicles, one of the best games of the generation (in my humble opinion, anyway) “deserved better than what [Nintendo] forced [it] to be.”

To be fair to the author Chris “Warcraft” Kluwe, he does commend the game’s strengths: its excellent world, its inventive, creative ideas; even going so far as to say that the game had the potential to be “this generation’s Final Fantasy VII“. But to say that the Wii “laughs at [developer MonolithSoft’s] dreams… and flushes them down the toilet of GameCube-era hardware Nintendo likes to call cutting edge” is a spectacularly blinkered viewpoint.

The fact is, it’s unlikely that Xenoblade Chronicles (and its spiritual successors The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower) would ever have been released had it not been for the Wii. The Wii’s lower demands in terms of asset production means that a sprawling, ambitious game such as Xenoblade Chronicles can be produced on a fraction of the budget of an HD title. Even then, though, MonolithSoft had to cut corners; the “gasping fish mouths bobbing up and down through beautifully crafted dialogue” that Kluwe refers to are a symptom of this.

The sad fact is that Japanese role-playing games are not the unstoppable juggernaut they once were. Where once they were a system seller, now they are a niche interest at best. The “mainstream” has shifted well and truly to the West; even Square Enix’s venerable Final Fantasy series is seen as little more than a particularly well-polished curio these days. Big-budget role-playing titles for HD consoles such as Lost Odyssey and, to a lesser extent, titles like Nier (aside: which I’m currently playing and is awesome) struggle to find a substantial audience (compared to “triple-A” titles, anyway) and, by extension, the ability to recoup the enormous spend necessary to craft a beautiful world in high definition and 5.1 surround sound. So developers and publishers simply aren’t taking the risk because it’s, well, too risky.

But the Wii gives them a platform to make these titles without having to spend as much money and time on the creation of assets. It’s not a case of Nintendo “shackling an obviously talented team like MonolithSoft to the ball and chain of the Wii because [they] want to sell waggle” (for just one of many things wrong with that statement, Xenoblade Chronicles features no waggle whatsoever). It’s a case of Nintendo giving talented teams the opportunity to do what they do best and then release them to a market of enthusiasts who are still clamouring for these titles. Yes, the Wii has a lot of waggle-based crap. But it also has an impressive library of Great Games That Absolutely Fucking No-One Has Ever Heard Of Ever Because They’re A Bit Weird Or Nichey And Have 480p Visuals.

Just because JRPGs don’t sell well compared to titles like Call of Duty and Mass Effect doesn’t mean that no-one wants to play them any more. In fact, the audience for the genre is probably actually the same size that it’s ever been; the difference is that the Call of Duty players have sprung up around them and outnumber them considerably. Given the simple choice between making something that will make fans happy and something that will make a metric fuck-ton of money, the vast majority of publishers will take the latter option. That’s simply “good business”, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all — developers gotta eat, after all. But to deride Nintendo for providing a platform eminently suited to developers who actively want to create niche titles for console — games which often provoke intense passion among their fans (as you can probably tell from this post) — is simply ridiculous.

It’s an age-old adage in the games industry that graphics do not maketh the game. Never has it been more true than in this strange period where we have two HD consoles and one SD system. Would Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower have been better games had they been released on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3? Absolutely not. (Pandora’s Tower, in fact, would have been considerably inferior due to the fact it actually makes good use of the Wii’s unique control scheme.) They would have been better-presented games, sure, but the core gameplay in all three cases is brilliant — and, to add insult to injury, the graphics for all three aren’t even what you could possibly describe as “bad” — just low-resolution. There’s a difference — sadly, one seemingly lost on many reviewers who describe their visuals as “muddy” or “poor” and, in many cases, knock a point off the final score in punishment. I defy anyone who has stood on the Makna Falls overlook in Xenoblade Chronicles, seen the beautiful afternoon sunlight and shadows in the castle courtyard in The Last Story or stood atop the Observatory gazing towards the Thirteen Towers at sunset in Pandora’s Tower to say that these games have “poor” visuals.

As such, I implore those of you who are gamers to stop caring so much about titles having pin-sharp graphics, fully orchestrated soundtracks and a voice cast of Major Hollywood Talent. Yes, these things make games more impressive and exciting to watch and play, but given the choice between a world made up of nothing but HD first-person shooters starring Morgan Freeman (with the world’s population of racist teenagers on backing vocals via Xbox Live) and a world where I can play 100+ hours of Xenoblade Chronicles in 480p with a selection of unknown (but excellent) British voice actors, I know which I’d rather spend my time in.

That’s just me, though. I illustrate my blog with stickmen, so take my word with a pinch of salt if you wish.

(Edit: Here’s an unedited picture of Pandora’s Tower running in 480p taken with my iPhone camera. Looks pretty lovely to me.)

#oneaday, Day 219: I Like ‘Em Chunky

I’ve been playing Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game recently. Besides being an excellently fun game that hearkens back to the golden days of the brawler, it also has some of the most adorable graphics you’ll ever see. By deliberately rendering things in low-res pixel art, it somehow manages to have approximately three thousand times more charm than the shiny brownness that is Gears of War. Granted, Gears isn’t a cartoony game, so it’s probably not an apt comparison. But even 3D-rendered “cartoony” or light-hearted games pale in comparison to some good old-fashioned pixel art.

It’s been a curious transition for art styles over the last few years. As 3D technology got better and better, the pressure was on developers to produce something that looked more and more real. The expression “if graphics don’t get any better than this, I’ll be happy” was trotted out with every new console generation. People spent hours looking down at the floor in Halo marvelling at how realistic the grass texture was. (Just me? All right then.) Putting things in higher and higher resolution was seen as the gold standard; something for everyone to strive for. Getting something running at 60 frames per second in 1080p? The Holy Grail.

Somewhere along the way during this process, pixel art spent some time being undesirable. I remember emulating Final Fantasy VI on my PC back when I first discovered emulation, and finding the huge pixels made incredibly clear on the PC monitor to be very offputting. I felt like I couldn’t see the detail. This wasn’t taking into account the fact that by the very nature of pixel art, some detail has to be omitted.

Today, though, I find myself playing PS1 sprite-art based games on my PS3 with all the filters turned off so that I can see those sharp edges. And Scott Pilgrim handles this in the same way. All the artwork is rendered in a deliciously unfiltered manner, which means you can see the “stepping” on diagonal lines, the black outlines around the character sprites and the necessary omission of detail. No-one has a nose, for example.

But you know what? It’s beautiful. It’s gorgeous. And I’d take a hundred games drawn in this way over another Unreal Engine 3 game. Perhaps it’s just oversaturation or “next-gen fatigue” and I’d eventually get sick of pixel art again. But certainly right now, I find it to be an incredibly attractive art style that I’m really glad to see a resurgence of. And my favourite use of HD graphics is, ironically, to render low-resolution pixel art in all its sharp-edged glory.

So you can keep your next-gen sweaty-faced protagonists. (Except Nathan Drake and Elena. They may live.) Give me a good old-fashioned big-eyed protagonist with giant fists and no nose any day of the week. KPOW!