GDC 2010 - Leadwerks Engine technology Demo

[michi:be]

I was contracted by the creator of the Leadwerks engine to do a sample movie showing the engine in a nice way with a 3min fly-through movie for this years Games Developer Conference.
I decided to do a mountain environment with underwater, lake, some animals and other stuff. I had some more ideas but I also had a tight deadline of two/three weeks for the complete project which consists of three levels. Due other jobs I did it in my spare time around three to five hours a day.

It was a bit tricky in some ways because the engine has some limitations which will be sorted out soon but were still in for the demo like a five terrain texture limit, no real decals (got decal code at the last two remaining days of the project) and 15 vegetation layer limit.
But at the end I'm feeling good with the result. Some rock textures could be sharper and some more color spots would have been nice. But this are the downsides of jobs and timelimits.


Screenshots:








And the videos on YouTube:

YouTube - pure3dviz's Channel

[Matti]

First of all: damm nice.

Things that bothered me:
III
-The shadows poppin' in, but that's prolly an engine thing, i guess.
-Rocks at the beginning are kinda not doing the job, later on they get better though.
II
- If you are under water, things don't get distorted like that. It's only of you are lookin' from above it. Not sure but it's physics, ray's going from one medium to another...

[KoenCalleyl]

I have to agree with Matti,

Refraction only happens at the border where two different mediums meet...I really like the realism of the other secens though.

It's a real pity of the underwater scene

[IchII3D]

Nice bit of work for the time frame, not to mention you did it yourself with new tech. Not sure about the techs power but it looks like you did a nice job.

[michi:be]

Thanks guys. I have no influence to the shaders. Most stuff can be turned on/off only. The refraction is also given. Basically the engine has around 30 textures which "play" as a kind of movie to simulate caustics or flowing sea water. The water also renders to infinity. It's meant as an ocean and not for lakes. But I really like the underwater effect even if I can't manipulte it in detail (only underwater fog/color and view distance). It looks like if I swim with open eyes and no diving-glasses on.

Refraction only happens at the border where two different mediums meet

Could you show a picture or so? I have problems understanding it although I think I have seen it before, hehe. I really like LE. It got very usable for development the last months and there's still a lot of potential in it. There's room for big new additions and features. If you work with a finished engine like Cry or Unreal you don't see lots of new improvements anymore because it's polished and finished. Leadwerks keeps surprising me.

[Flat Face]

This looks fantastic although the videos seems rather lifeless :/

The animals were obviously just a quick mock up to add to the effect but there didn't seem to be any wind effecting tree's, the water seemed far too clear and still, once under water it looked fantastic but in your 1st screen for instance, the water is pretty much invisible apart from the refraction, also when you were flying into the ocean, the water looked almost plastic.

9/10 all up, everything was beautiful and I can't wait to see games done with this engine

PS: 1 thing I would have liked to see would be a fast motion 1 min video of 24h's sped up, that always looks great.

[KoenCalleyl]

This is what happens when air meets water, this all is the consequence of light travelling at at lower speed through water than air.

http://plus.maths.org/issue15/news/refract/pencil.jpg

But, if you look at the pencil completely underwater, if you're underwater yourself ( with diving glasses ), you'll just see the pencil as it is outside of water.

If you're underwater with diving glasses, the ratios and distance to other swimmers are different, but the image is as if you were looking at people "swimming" in air. They won't look wavy...

Photo Shark - Bahamas Underwater Photography

This is completely taken underwater. As you can see, the shark doesn't look blurry, it isn't distorted. Underwater, fog is the most important effect you'll need.

Koen

[michi:be]

Ah ok. Thanks for showing the pictures. I know what you mean now. Some fog and underwater stuff (particles, fishes and so on) would be enough.
Maybe the effect is a bit to much then or just like I wear no diving glasses. I'll suggest to do these options for the water too or have the intensity adjusted.