Results of lighting experiments w/ meshes +bevels

Join Date: 2009-02-08
Post Count: 2043

#111688918Saturday, August 31, 2013 7:18 PM GMT

Due to the controversy of the removal of bevels, I have taken the liberty of performing a study of how certain things "react" to the new lighting engine. i have also performed some additional experiments to identify some small but noticeable "bugs". Before I start, You should be warned that I DO have legitimate beveled blocks, with an unmodded client. http://www.roblox.com/Bevels-item?id=128334075 The first thing I did was test changes in surface lighting between meshes and normal blocks. Both the mesh and block were lit properly, which suggested the lighting engine itself was actually quite flexible, at least on flat surfaces. http://www.roblox.com/pointlight-demonstration-item?id=128334420 I asked myself what a good mesh to test would be, looked in a mirror, and knew what to do. This was obviously far more difficult to verify, i used a moving block going through it to make sure it had been lit correctly, and it was. ROBLOX then crashed, so i'm afraid you'll have to verify it yourself if you don't agree. http://www.roblox.com/Full-light-demomstration-item?id=128334281 http://www.roblox.com/spotlight-mesh-demonstration-item?id=128334502 Next, I tested the lighting between terrain(A block, essentially), a cylinder, and a sphere. Now, these images probably won't do it any justice, but these were actually lit poorly. They looked less realistic than anything else showcased here. This, however, only suggested that the block penetrating qualities of point and spotlights can create unsightly gradients on these objects in certain situations, which I'll expand upon later. http://www.roblox.com/Cylinder-Sphere-Demo-item?id=128334093 http://www.roblox.com/Cylinder-sphere-red-demo-item?id=128334123 Now for the moment you've been waiting for, The lighting test on bevels. To some, an unfortunate rendering artifact is present, but to others, this may just be one of the greatest ways to leverage the power of dynamic lighting yet. the bevels capture light and become more defined, quite beautifully, too. http://www.roblox.com/Bevel-light-demo-item?id=128334023 Conclusion: The lighting engine as it stands DOES NOT light beveled objects perfectly, but creates a very interesting dynamic with this flawed rendering. Lastly are some images from 'bug' testing. The first 'bug' i tested was the block penetration of light, otherwise known as the glow effect. The beveled blocks actually rendered beautifully when i did this, but sadly the image quality simply isn't good enough to show it. http://www.roblox.com/Glow-effect-block-demo-item?id=128334320 http://www.roblox.com/Glow-effect-sphere-demo-item?id=128334402 http://www.roblox.com/Glow-effect-Cylinder-Demo-item?id=128334373 http://www.roblox.com/Glow-effect-bevel-demo-item?id=128334306 Another 'bug' i tested almost reminded me of Luigi's Mansion when his shadow hangs himself, and rightfully so. both the bug on ROBLOX and the bug in that game can quite honestly be a little scary. The fact that player shadows are rendered indefinitely can http://www.roblox.com/Evil-Shadow-Sphere-Demo-item?id=128334234 http://www.roblox.com/Evil-Shadow-Cylinder-Demo-item?id=128334200 http://www.roblox.com/Evil-Shadow-Bevel-Demo-item?id=128334173 http://www.roblox.com/Endless-Shadow-Demo-item?id=128334141 Want the block I used to test bevels? Here it is! http://www.roblox.com/Beveled-Block-Can-39-t-be-resized-item?id=128339631