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VolumetricLighting

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 3:30 pm
by Aldebaran
Recently I saw a youtube video where someone was showing his own maps. i wondered why I saw fog in these maps too, that was very good looking.
After searching I found out I played years with the setting VolumetricLighting=False. If you set this to True you have in some maps fog - especially in monster hunt maps - and some stuff like crystals show a really nice looking lighting now.

You can find this option here:
UT Menu: Tools -> System Console -> write "preferences" -> Rendering -> choose your renderer (Direct3D9, OpenGL...) -> VolumetricLighting

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 5:36 pm
by Iacobus
Aldebaran wrote:Recently I saw a youtube video where someone was showing his own maps. i wondered why I saw fog in these maps too, that was very good looking.
After searching I found out I played years with the setting VolumetricLighting=False. If you set this to True you have in some maps fog - especially in monster hunt maps - and some stuff like crystals show a really nice looking lighting now.

You can find this option here:
UT Menu: Tools -> System Console -> write "preferences" -> Rendering -> choose your renderer (Direct3D9, OpenGL...) -> VolumetricLighting
To make maps with fog enabled you have to set the LevelInfo for global settings or the ZoneInfos placed inside each zone to FogZone=True and then tweak the volume lighting settings for each light you want the effect on
Shot0017_2.jpg

The map I'm currently making fully utilizes this feature, giving a spooky and misty atmosphere to an abandoned industrial area. It does wonders on dark rooms, faking the effect of light coming trough doors and windows and hiting dust particles. Only downside is that decals (bullet holes, explosion marks, blood) won't appear on wall and floors inside fog zones, but I think it's a fair trade off if you're going for atmosphere. Here's a fog on/ fog off comparison:
Shot0017_1.jpg
It also is great for turning tomato sauce...
Shot0141_1.jpg
... into hot boiling lava
Shot0089_1.jpg

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 6:21 pm
by Aldebaran
Very nice example picures, thank you!
Players who needs every milisecond to win a match perhaps won't activate this feature, but for others this extra portion athmosphere could mean a lot if you just want to have some fun ;-)

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 8:18 pm
by papercoffee
Fog isn't working online.

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 8:48 pm
by sektor2111
Nah...
I think fog, decals, coronas, music have the same rules: they are AVAILABLE ON-LINE only IF client WANTS them. Client side is controlling them at player's will, unless some "server" is breaking rules in client...

I have to admit that my client has disabled FOG because... some (more) maps are CRAP at this point - no offense, just reality, and I'm serious...

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 9:13 pm
by Aldebaran
papercoffee wrote:Fog isn't working online.
With my client now I have fog in online servers after I have set VolumetricLighting=True as described in my first post.
The posticous difference in brightness you can see in the last two pictures (taken online) don't exist without VolumetricLighting,
the first two pictures are taken without VolumetricLIghting as comparison:

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 12:45 am
by papercoffee
:shock: ... I stand corrected. Thank you.

I love it.

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 2:36 am
by Barbie
What I have seen in MH-Shrak3 is how to build ground fog: subtract some matter below the area that should have ground fog, add some lights there with VolumeFog set and a matching light radius, and set ZoneInfo.bFogZone=true.

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 7:52 pm
by papercoffee
Wait? ...the volume of the light is reaching through the floor ...what a nice trick.

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 2:06 pm
by utplayer
Interestingly the Glide driver has this on True by default while the stock D3D/OGL drivers seem to have it on False. I think its True by default on UTGLR though.

Really even stock maps like DM-Fetid utilize this heavily for atmosphere so having this off by default is a very bad call.

Re: VolumetricLighting

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 1:05 am
by Wail
Fog is very performance intensive as far as it matters. When I was working on Marathon Resurrection I used it extensively (so much so that a lot of people had major performance issues on certain maps where I overused it).