Shimin Cong MA 3D Computer animation

Under normal circumstances, there are several ways to get a more intuitive way for individual research results

Interview:
An interview is a guided conversation between the researcher (you) and the person you want to learn from. They can be called “whistleblowers”.
The structure of these questions can be built around pre-prepared questions or general guidelines that the interviewer will follow. It is best to involve only one or two people, because large groups may disappear in multiple conversations, or overlapping speakers may make it difficult to collect qualitative data from them.
Interviews are time-consuming, so please be careful when planning the interview.
The whistleblower should be selected carefully at all times, as they should be specific to your field of research.

observe:
This can be thought of as the study of someone or something in a specific situation.
For example, you might want to observe someone (or shoot yourself) creating something from start to finish to understand the process. Whether it is equipment used to set up animation or particle effects. Once the observation process has taken place, the markers relevant to your research field should be taken. You may want to think about the ethical aspects of observation. Does the person being studied know this? Can they agree? If they are not happy to be observed, can they opt out of this arrangement? What will they do?

Questionnaire:
It can be qualitative or quantitative.
Interviews are more in-depth, while questionnaires provide more snapshots of people’s views (generally speaking).
Prepare the questionnaire with clear and easy-to-understand questions. Not everyone knows this topic, and your data should be able to include more volunteers. Specify what the goal of your questionnaire is.
You may want to use the pyramid method to narrow the focus of the problem with each successive problem.
You can use this data to compare parameters within a group or measurement group.

However, for my game project, the game player evaluation will most directly reflect the current situation of the game. Therefore, I invited 22 players from the UK and China to evaluate the Little Devil project.

A test process used is the exponential height fog, the following two environmental atmosphere is after 10 people voted to choose out the most consistent with the effect of the story background settings.

Through the comparison can clearly feel the second picture is more in line with the feeling of the deep sea, while with a touch of bleakness. In contrast, the first picture looks more dreamy, more like a dream under the sea, while with a touch of warmth. Through feedback from players, Little Devill uses a dynamic weather system, between the pink and blue environmental effects of the above picture. The colors of the dynamic weather will gradually transition between pink and dark blue over time. In addition, the ambient fog not only shapes the space and atmosphere but also plays a role in enriching and unifying the colors of the picture. For Little Devil‘s immersion, its own gameplay is to attract players by interacting with the surrounding fish and plants to change colors. Therefore, the environment should not be too bright at this stage, so as to leave sufficient space for the development of interactive lighting effects and fill light later.

Player feedback

Video game project review is a very important part. Some game projects are always notorious for having bugs, no matter how big their budget or team size is. The quality of the game is the key to success. This quality can be assessed and guaranteed by testing . Therefore, for the experience of the game project, 22 players from China and the UK were invited to participate in the evaluation. Sixteen players reported that the ambience of the game changed from bleak to confusing. six players reported that the ambience of the game remained the same throughout the game. However, the vast majority of players reported a lack of gaming experience during play. Players were collecting crystals throughout the game, which made players lack the desire to explore the map. A small number of people thought that there should be more differences between the different landscapes of the game, including the colors, but the remaining part of the players did not make any comments in this regard.

Project Summary

Game lighting design is a very important part of the whole game development process. A good game in the scene design cannot be separated from the spatial atmosphere. The lighting system used in the Little Devil project is only limited to the default environment of Unreal. But in industrial production, different companies will produce their own internal some plug-ins, such as some fog plug-ins. So the Little Devil project is just an attempt at independent game development. There is a lot of room for development in the art performance. Including the difference between different landscapes, lighting optimization and the richness of ambient light.

In terms of light and shadow as well as color, Little Devil still has many flaws. Although in the visual most players say it is beautiful enough. In the game scene design is very common if there is no light pointing to the player easy to get lost, light and shadow can play a role in prompting the level and provoke the player’s emotions, in the preliminary art original design also need to show. Although Little Devil has light guidance at different POIs, but the light guidance alone does not meet the needs of players and attract players. It also needs the interplay of game play, game effects and even music.

A lot of feedback from players will often reveal unexpected problems. In this feedback, the most popular call is the lack of exploration desire of the game players. Although the gameplay is not the key research direction this time. However, as an immersive game attempt, its game play should conform to the doctrine of mind flow experience, and the project should also inspire players’ desire by designing the game play. After all, fun is the soul of the game.

In this process, I summarized the iterative ideas of game lighting production based on my own lighting test results and past production experience. The purpose is to provide theoretical reference and iterative ideas for the production of the next chapter of the Little Devil game.

• 1.Fog and ambient light-create a simple game atmosphere
• 2.Reflection Probe- fill light and capture the reflection information of the object
• 3.Direction/ Point/ Spot Light-add light details in the scene

Fog and ambient light

Light and fog do not only provide visual enjoyment, Olafur Eliasson uses his unique artistic approach to use light and fog as a mirror for human thinking. Similarly, the game with artistic properties also need to affect the mood of the player in the fog. Therefore another element of the work of game lighting is the use of fog Ambient. Usually. fog , ambient light and main light can roughly determine the final atmosphere of the game scene. This is very similar to the rapid color laying in painting. In some game development, Ambient light is simply divided into three colors that affect the upper top surface, the sides and the bottom surface of the model. This is an extremely effective and inexpensive method for game production, even for games that strive for extreme graphic effects such as Zelda.

And for Fog. First of all, to explain the real world fog is a condensation of water vapor consisting of small water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere near the surface of the earth, is a common weather phenomenon, fog can affect visibility. In virtual reality in general the fog effect is relatively simple to achieve, the so-called fog effect, is in the direction away from our viewpoint, the object looks like it is masked with a certain color (usually gray).

In the traditional fixed pipeline, has been built-in fog effect, simulation of fog concentration calculation there are three algorithms: Linear fog Linear, exponential fog Exponential, second-order exponential fog Exp2. some game production companies in pursuit of immersion, two outside the script language written in height fog and volume fog. As much as possible to restore the physical display. Among them, Linear fog Linear, exponential fog Exponential, second-order exponential fog Exp2 and height fog implementation is based on the superposition of color in the absence of model coverage will not produce the effect of fog, which will make the picture first and not real. And volume fog and special effects fog in supplement and enrich the game screen at the same time can effectively solve the false performance of other fog in the model boundary. Lighting is a very important carrier in the landscape. The combination of volume fog and lighting, especially the combination with colored lights, can form rich colors and bring people a very impactful visual enjoyment.

Reflection probe

When the light stops, the art stops. In the road of artistic exploration reflection as part of light, reflection in the game of creative still has a lot of room for development (Torres, O’Leary, Nicholas & Paulos, 2017) In addition to the light source within the game, reflection effect is an important part of the work of the game lighting engineer, such as water, mirror surface need to reflect the effect of other objects. Usually, the player sees the color of the model = ambient light + direct light + indirect light + basecolor. A small part of the model also includes its own self-illumination. When no reflection probe is used in the scene, objects in the scene with reflections (including Specular and Metallic) use the information from the sky map (including Sky Plane / Sky Box / Sky Dome) to create the reflection effect. In simple scenes, reflections using only sky maps are barely adequate; but in immersive games, such reflections are falsely substandard.

The main use of the light detector is to provide high-quality lighting (including indirectly reflected light) for moving objects in the scene. The second use is to provide lighting information for static landscapes when using Unity’s Level of Detail (LoD) system. For example, in the Genesis project, different areas of the world will have larger Reflection probe boxes, while some Points of Interest will have additional smaller Reflection probe boxes. The purpose of doing so is to optimize the game scene while achieving the desired graphics effect. In some industrial processes, cubemap is often used in conjunction with the Reflection probe. Ambient reflection is a more common method in games. cubemap is a cube map, with six faces corresponding to one map, which is rendered by the camera in each of the six directions, that is, a pre-baked environment map. Usually, a Reflection probe is used to capture the scope of the scene, and then the cubemap is used to bake the game scene.

Lighting system in the engine

In addition to color, the lighting mode and the type of light source is one of the most important parts of the game. Different lighting modes can greatly affect the performance of the game and the atmosphere of the graphics. There are different modes of lighting. These modes are related to the mobility of the lights and the way they are used in the scene. These modes differ in terms of performance, so it is important to consider the lighting modes when implementing lighting. The common lighting modes are baked, blended and real time. Of course the naming of lighting modes varies from game engine to game engine.

In immersive games, the effect of static lighting as well as a mixture of dynamic lighting is usually used. Static lighting is cheaper to run on the device and provides a better experience for the end user of the game. Dynamic lighting, on the other hand, can provide real-time shadows for moving objects, including characters, thus increasing the sense of realism. As for the type of lighting can be broadly divided into: directional light, point light, spot light. where directional light is used as the main light source. point light, spot light can be used as the main light source for some areas. However, the game usually requires the lighting artist to manually add fill light to increase the color level and sense of atmosphere of the scene. This is similar to impressionist painting, usually in the dark areas of the physical color is the most rich, but at the same time to pay attention to good control of brightness.

The literature review must achieve the following.

• 1.demonstrate a clear understanding of your thesis and works/videos/films etc. relevant to your area of study.
• 2. demonstrate that you can integrate these into your thesis in a clear and coherent way.
• Demonstrate the ability to assess.
• 3. Your marker must be clear on all of the above (remember your audience).

• What should my literature include?
• Address a theory that underpins my work.
• Make a statement that is relevant to your field of study.
• Either fall within my topic or clearly overlap.
• Give recognition to the work of others.
• Contribute to a coherent and consistent argument.
• Define the current state of research in this area of study.

With the above writing method, I set the Literature review as the second chapter. The importance of game lighting in immersive game development is highlighted through theory, the atmosphere of successful games and the views of others. The main areas covered are the following.

• 1 The difference between game lighting and film and television lighting
• 2. what is immersive gaming
• 3. lighting in immersive games
• 4. ray tracing – Cyberpunk 2077
• 5. Volumetric Lighting The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• 6.Lighting Effects – Genshin Impact
• 7.Ambience Design – Little Nightmares

In conclusion, computer games are the most complex form of interactive media. It is no exception in immersive games. Although, a large part of game immersion comes from high-fidelity reproduction of reality, such as ray tracing and volumetric fog. For mobile platforms that are limited by hardware, game lighting artists will come with designs based on visual aesthetics as well as life attempts to add Lighting Visual Effects. obviously, many part of the game’s success cannot be achieved without realistic scenes.

Although defining and highlighting the shape is the first thing the lighting artist should consider. But in addition to the primary purpose of defining shape, light can also be a storytelling medium, affecting mood, form, color, intensity, and movement. But the biggest difference with film and television lighting is that game lighting has to take more into account game play as well as game performance to achieve perfect art effects while allowing players to have a smoother gaming experience. Today, computer hardware and software innovation, game lighting technology and rendering algorithms will continue to be optimized. Game lighting will be less constrained by the performance of the game. This has greatly increased the degree of development of game lighting. But having strong technology is not the key factor for the success of immersive game scenes. It also requires the support of art theory and the control of the producer’s artistic aesthetics.

The Abstract and Introduction is the quickest way for the author to differentiate and engage the reader. The content of this section must therefore be logically rigorous.

Abstract

What is your field of study
Whether there are gaps in knowledge in your field.
The overall aims and objectives of your thesis and how it will address these gaps.
A brief description of the methods you will use to achieve these objectives.
Your most important results and findings.
How the results of your dissertation will be used to further your understanding of your research area.

Light is the most important tool for human to know and feel the world. At the same time, light is the soul of space, and the link between people and space, entities and nature. For games, lighting plays a key role in creating the atmosphere, storytelling, different textures and the sense of immersion.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how lighting serves immersive games. This is different from other papers that consider only art effects or technology. It explores this through a series of approaches. These include a study of what immersive games are, an analysis of the differences between game and film lighting, ray tracing, the use of volumetric light and special effects light in games, the production pipeline of game lighting including color and emotional ambience, the study of ambient fog, the performance of reflective sphere sets for games, and the quality of lighting. In addition this thesis also specifically analyzes the lighting in the personal practice project Little Devil.

In addition, this thesis hopes to summarize the role of lighting in immersive games and the future development direction in a more objective way through these theoretical discussions and the analysis of personal experience in the production and development of the independent game Little Devil. At the same time, the article will also satisfy the desire for knowledge of game lighting production pipeline.

Introduction

As with the abstract, you may wish to divide the presentation into the following sections.
Identifying your reader (who is your reader?)
Engaging the reader (grabbing attention)
Background (making it relevant)
General knowledge of the topic
What’s next (preview your main points)

Today computer games can play an opposing or critical role in contemporary aesthetics and culture (Kirkpatrick, 2007). As mentioned by Bittanti (2006), video games are a complex art of interaction. In this field where interaction and art intersect, immersion is an important direction of research for game development. Without immersion, most potential players will lack the motivation to initiate or maintain game stickiness (Weibel & Wissmath, 2011). With the continuous iterations and updates of game engines, especially the rapid development of Unreal and Unity game engines, the effects that can be rendered by game art are becoming more and more diverse, which in turn increases the sense of immersion at the art level. However the concept and definition of immersion varies, and game lighting affects the player’s behavior, emotions, and game experience in the game to a high degree (Fagerholt & Lorentzon, 2009). Indeed lighting has many functions in a game environment, including directing attention, establishing good action visibility, evoking emotions, creating atmosphere and providing depth (Seif El-Nasr, 2005). This paper will explore the iterative ideas of game lighting around immersive games, and the importance and evolvability of lighting in game development.

Aims and Content Description

This paper will cover various areas of game lighting research and development, including lighting visual effects, volume light, ray tracing, lighting color theory, Reflection Capture, ambient light and fog. It is intended to highlight the development prospects and importance of game lighting through the collective analysis of each technology. The goal is to establish a systematic and complete iterative process of game lighting for immersive games. And on the basis of lighting theory to create an underwater atmosphere of the immersive game Little Devil and the game scene. Finally, the final conclusion is drawn through theoretical and practical proof.

The next chapters are divided into four important sections.  The second chapter will review the definition of immersive games, the difference between game lighting and film lighting, and the development of lighting technology in games. Through the support of these existing status quo, the developability of game lighting as well as the scientific research is highlighted. The third chapter will specifically analyze the component architecture of game lighting, including color, ambient light, fog, reflection capture, and lighting properties. This process will be combined with the performance optimization of the game to support the production of the OpenWorld game Little Devil. The fourth chapter will summarize the lighting issues encountered in Little Devil’s development, and the game’s production lighting will be analyzed and evaluated. The last chapter of this thesis is a summary of the theoretical and practical aspects of the previous chapters, which leads to the central thesis of this paper: lighting plays a key role in creating the atmosphere, storytelling, different textures and immersion in the scene. Especially in the era of continuous technological innovation, game lighting will be able to better present various artistic effects and meet the future market demand.

Before I started writing, I did a lot of reading as well as lighting tests as a way to improve my theoretical knowledge of game lighting. Through reading books, I found that almost all of them emphasise that game lighting has to take into account the gameplay of the game. The atmosphere of the game is created by the close cooperation of all aspects of the game art. It is not something that can be achieved by a single effect or a single light. In my thesis on game lighting analysis I will therefore spend more time on the interactive nature of game lighting and its role in industrial production. A more objective view of the lighting process in immersive games.

Below are some key sentences that I have summarised after reading a lot of literature. It is easier to find the desired reference when writing by placing these sentences above. Phrases that have been used are marked in orange.

In addition, before writing I also did a scene lighting test in Unity, which on the one hand was to experience the process of creating lighting for a game. On the other hand, I wanted to familiarise myself with the new game engine. Before that I was using Unreal.

To better experience the effects of lighting. All models in this scene are coloured white. However, the roughness information is also retained as well as the Normal information.In which the production ideas are broadly divided into three parts.

• 1.Linear fog as well as ambient light
• 2.Reflection Probe
• 3.Direction/Point/Spot Light

The four pictures below present 3 different shades as well as the atmosphere. The main colours are controlled entirely by the lighting and fog. This shows the importance of lighting in creating the atmosphere of the game.

The outline of a dissertation is a very important reference for an 8,000 word dissertation. A good dissertation outline will give the writer an idea of what should be covered where. This prevents overstatement on one issue.

The structure of my thesis is roughly as follows.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how lighting serves immersive games. This is different from other papers that consider only art effects or technology. It explores this through a series of approaches. These include a study of what immersive games are, an analysis of the differences between game and film lighting, ray tracing, the use of volumetric light and special effects light in games, the production pipeline of game lighting including color and emotional ambience, the study of ambient fog, the performance of reflective sphere sets for games, and the quality of lighting. In addition this thesis also specifically analyzes the lighting in the personal practice project Little Devil.

Introduction

Identified readers: artists, game enthusiasts, people working in the game sector, film and television enthusiasts, film and television producers

Background: Lighting and art → Game development → Main idea of this article

Central arguments: 1. Lighting, as the final aspect of game art, plays a crucial role in the immersion of a game. 2. The place of lighting in the future game market and how to create

Next content introduction

Literature review

This section will analyse the differences between lighting in the games and film industries and where lighting fits into the game development process. This can set the scene for an emphasis on the evolvability of game lighting. The main points covered are the following.

• 1 The difference between game lighting and film and television lighting
• 2. what is immersive gaming
• 3. lighting in immersive games
• 4. ray tracing – Cyberpunk 2077
• 5. Volumetric Lighting The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• 6.Lighting Effects – Genshin Impact
• 7.Ambience Design – Little Nightmares
• 8.Chapter Summary

CHAPTER 3: Methodology

The main purpose of this chapter is to provide the theoretical basis and methodological support for the lighting design of Little Devil. It is divided into the following areas.

• 1. Lighting colour theory and lighting techniques
• 2. Lighting systems in the engine
• 3. Reflection probe
• 4. Fog and ambient light
• 5. Chapter Summary

CHAPTER 4: Little Devil test

CHAPTER5: Conclusion

After Little Devil’s development, the structure of my thesis has been changed and its draft diagram is shown below.

A different research direction from the first thesis. The focus of the research in this thesis will be on the production pipeline of game lighting.

Firstly, the important role of game lighting is introduced from the cooperation between the lighting artist and various other departments, for immersive games. This is followed by an analysis of the theory as well as the techniques of game lighting production. Providing a theoretical basis for Little Devil. Finally, the production process of Little Devil is analysed, as well as its shortcomings.

The article concludes with a summary of all the chapters. The development experience of Little Devil is used to talk about how developable the game lighting is and what to look for when working with it.

The most important thing that needs to be clarified for a thesis is the thesis. And the topic chosen for this dissertation is the result of several revisions.

The first of these theses will focus on mind-flow experiences and immersive gaming. The focus of the research will be on the mind-flow experience. The reason for choosing mind-flow experience was that at the time I happened to learn about the doctrine of mind-flow experience, which is very relevant to games. Also I was looking for a decent job in a gaming company. So my thesis and FMP will be focused on games. Here are the links between the mind-flow doctrine and games.

What is the Flow Experience

“The actor enters a pattern of shared experience. In that experience, the user seems to be drawn in, with awareness so focused on a very narrow range that perceptions and thoughts not related to the activity are filtered and ignored, and with a loss of self-awareness, responding only to the specific goals of the activity and explicit feedback, creating a sense of control through the manipulation of the environment”.

This is manifested by a total concentration on the work, often losing track of time and the perception of the surroundings, and by the fact that these people experience an unaccountable pleasure in the process.

How to create a continuous flow experience

The model is very similar to the human blood circulation system and consists of a conceptual loop, an experiential loop and a challenge pool. The goal-based challenge is the centrepiece of the model, with continuous challenge maintaining motivation and learning engagement, and skills progressively improving in the experiential loop. The user then tries to solve the problem and validate the idea through the experience loop, and finally corrects or reinforces the idea in the idea generation section, ultimately achieving meaning construction.

So the key to creating a continuous mind-flow experience is to have a well-established cyclical learning structure that guides players to progressively learn, improve their skills, and face new challenges.

In-Game flow experience model

The focus of the model is on

The execution of tasks is ultimately expressed as a series of decision-based actions performed by the gamer within the framework of the rules of the game, in the manner provided by the free space of the system.

All feasible solutions to a task constitute the free space.

Conventionally games are divided into PVP types and PVC (PVE) types.

The PVP type of game is inherently advantageous because the space of engagement of each side directly affects the challenge space and free space of the other, creating a feedback loop with a wide variety of outcomes. With a suitable level assessment algorithm and opponent matching mechanism, a mind-flow loop architecture can be implemented.

The PVC genre requires a strict mind-flow loop structure for the layout of levels.

Skills progressively increase in breadth and depth as the game progresses, and the challenge escalates as the mind-flow experience cycles through zones 1 – > 2 – > 3.

Each level’s participation space and free space is carefully designed, with new rules and props constantly being added to the participation space and the free space always remaining non-unique

However, the ability of the PVC genre to continuously create mind-flow experiences will disappear at the end of the level chain, and how to continue the ability of the PVC genre to continuously create mind-flow experiences is another question.

Discussion

From the perspective of mindstreaming, it can be extended to various departments of game development, such as game planning, game scene editing, game effects and game lighting. Its explorability is ample. At the same time, I my FMP is exactly what Little Devil’s game production is. The theory can provide a strong theoretical and logical reference for the development of the game.