This week we show off the new lighting, texturing, and interaction of the 3d dungeons. When we showed the 3d dungeons working last time they were not connected to the actual dungeon rooms in the dungeon, they were just randomly generated every time you clicked a door. Daniel has now fully integrated the 3d views in with the original code. It didn’t take him long to get it working perfectly: navigating around, searching items and finding treasure, setting off traps, and getting into combat. This is the baseline from which we can now expand into new areas of interaction.

On the content side I was able to put in new wall/floor textures and greatly improve the lighting model. Unity offers two forms of lighting: gamma and linear. Linear provides a slightly more realistic render, but not all older hardware supports it, especially Mac or integrated PC video cards. I made the decision to go with gamma for maximum compatibility and because I thought it looked nicer for our style. The art style of Archmage is neither realistic nor cartoony. I call it something in between those: fantasy realism, like the work of Larry Elmore, Clyde Cadwell, and Jeff Easley. The gamma lighting model seemed to fit better in with that.

One small way we are integrating the 3d dungeon in with gameplay is the lighting of the room varies based on the source of the light (torch or spell). Daniel put in some slight flickering to reinforce that you the player are holding the light. The more powerfully you cast the light spell, the further it reaches into the darkness.