2017.11.03 - Dwelvers Journal - Graphics Reworked
Hi all,
For the last week I've been working on some eyecandy as well as the new UI. I felt like this was something I had to do because I know that this game engine has so much potential, and somewhere down the road I let the graphics stray down the wrong path. So I gave it a shot and updated the lightning, water, lava and the rock.
New lightning
First of, I have given all the creatures and buildings in dungeon new specular textures so that the materials looks much more alive. Here we have a screenshot of the Dark Mother and the walls surrounding her, you can see how the light shines on her demon like skin, and that the walls reflects the light in a appropriate manner.
![[Image: ScreenshotDM.jpg]](http://dwelvers.com/images/newsletter/170311/ScreenshotDM.jpg)
Overall dungeon brightness
One thing that I've been working on before and never got right was that the dungeon was either to dark or to bright. I had trouble giving the rooms enough lights to not look empty, and if I gave them some overall lights the rest of the dungeon usually got to dark because I didn't want to overexpose the lightning. Now this is solved! What I did was that I gave all the room objects a light above them, which made them stand out more and look a lot more active.
![[Image: ScreenshotDungeonTopView.jpg]](http://dwelvers.com/images/newsletter/170311/ScreenshotDungeonTopView.jpg)
Corner shadows
Another feature I added to make the dungeon look less pale was that I gave all the corners shadows. If you look at the picture below you can see that all the corner edges has a darker edge, and if a wall edge is facing an open area it is made a little bit brighter. It is not much brighter or darker, but it is enough to give the player a much better feeling of depth.
![[Image: ScreenshotExcavation.jpg]](http://dwelvers.com/images/newsletter/170311/ScreenshotExcavation.jpg)
New rock model and texture
I just had to replace the rock texture! The problem with the old one was that the color was way to outstanding, and as it is a rock I don't want the player eyes to be distracted by it. Just like the lights above important buildings make these buildings stand out, a grayer texture makes the rocks stand out less, and by doing this the important buildings stands out even more. This screenshot may not be the perfect example of this because it only features rocks, but you can check out the other screenshots to see what I mean.
![[Image: ScreenshotShadows.jpg]](http://dwelvers.com/images/newsletter/170311/ScreenshotShadows.jpg)
New water graphics
As everything else in the dungeon started to look more realistic (but not too realistic) I had to rework the water as well. The old green water just didn't cut it, it just didn't look like water. So now we have a more realistic looking water! I made some research on this and the most authentic water color in a cave would be the same color as the rock surrounding it, and a lot darker. But I had to gamify it so that it was easier to see and to select, therefore I gave it a bit greenish color.
![[Image: ScreenshotLakeWithPortalAndMushrooms.jpg]](http://dwelvers.com/images/newsletter/170311/ScreenshotLakeWithPortalAndMushrooms.jpg)
Reflective water
Here you can see an example of a calm lake that is reflecting the light from the hand, but is also reflecting the rocks surrounding it. The cyclotaur is also being reflected but it is much more easier to see this in game than with a screenshot.
![[Image: ScreenshotReflectiveLake.jpg]](http://dwelvers.com/images/newsletter/170311/ScreenshotReflectiveLake.jpg)
Lava
The lava textures has also been reworked, here we can see a majestic image of a lava fall next to a lake.
![[Image: ScreenshotLava.jpg]](http://dwelvers.com/images/newsletter/170311/ScreenshotLava.jpg)
So what's next?
I didn't post any images on the new UI and menu system because I wanted to leave that for my next newsletter. Right now everything is working almost as it should and I mostly have to check the game for bugs. So for the next week I will play through the game over and over again searching for bugs that may have come up with this huge code re-factorization I've made. So hopefully in a week or two I will be able to release a new version. But in the meantime I will need bug testers, if you feel up to it just let me know and I will add you to my pre-release list.
So what did you all think of the new graphics? Let me know in the comments below

Dwelvers Alpha v0.10 is available for download at the Dwelvers Website and on Steam.