Sprite DLight - Support ?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2d ... n=95ee824d

I'm aware Construct2 already has some support on dynamic lighting, but I saw this tool on Facebook and got curious as to how it could be supported. (Specially alongside Spriter).

What do you guys think ? <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile">

I like this better than Sprite Lamp. I like the idea of these, but lamp required 4 images. I ilke the 1 image and produce on this one. Looks easier.

Looks cool but I don't know how heavy it is if it is being used in runtime. I'm all in for something like this, but it seems like a big support request.

This looks really amazing! It would be great if C2 or Spriter could do something like this.

lucid

You might find this interesting...

This does indeed look very good. We will be keeping an eye out, and see what we can do some time after Spriter 1.0's imminent release.

I just found a program that parts from the same principle! Maybe it's worth a look. http://crazybump.com/

Without a proper shader or a sprite object that supports the separate maps, I find it hard to believe that this is actually feasible. Don't forget that for each Sprite object that we want this effect to be applied, we need at least one extra sprite overalyed, that will hold the "bump" effect. And since this is actually different from what we already have with the normal bump shader, because creates normals from and for animated sprites, the actual image size will increase dramatically for frame by frame animation workflow. For cut-out animations though (as with Spriter) this is an other story. Still, The process should be automatic somehow.

I tried my hand on 4 characters I made for a friend's game. This is the PNG

And here's the Normal Map test using Crazybump

I'll assume his program will work very similarly, and Crazybump is already working (and free).

There's lot of normalmap creators out there already. Free, paid and even online ones, and never had any problem making them for 2d images. So I really don't get what's the point of making yet another soft that works exactly the same as others currently available.

And also, don't forget that current normalmap shaders available in C2, official one, and one made by some other guy (which actually makes normalmaps on the fly without a need of additional objects) are still limited to only one light source. Which makes things complicated if you want to do some fancy effects.

I just found a program that parts from the same principle! Maybe it's worth a look. http://crazybump.com/

Crazybump was around for a very long time, years at least... It can produce nice results but it's not free.

shinkan , where is this other shader which actually makes normalmaps on the fly without a need of additional objects?

Are you referring to the Normal mapping shader by GamesWarp studios ?

eli0s Yes. It works quite nice. Also I made a few modifications for my personal use so I get more params to set (like: glow radius, falloff radius, light intensity, light color and most important effect is not visible on transparent pixels of the object)

But like I said, until effects of that kind can't accept multiple sources you can't really make fun stuff with them. For example you can't have 5 lasers illuminating background wall...

sprite d light seems to render in object space instead of tangent space. I like the result so far, specially for the occlusion map.

If not, there's Knald that in my opinion is better than crazybump and also you can use XNormal.

Hi everyone, Sprite DLight guy here.

Pretty exciting to already see that much interest in my tool, even before launch.

I would like to elaborate a bit on things that have been discussed here.

First of all, I have to point out that the output of Sprite DLight is (among other assets) a normal map, which can be used in any engine that supports shaders.

So the question is not if C2 could make use of this, as it already can.

Engine integration of Sprite DLight's normal maps is the same as for any other normal maps.

For Construct 2, the developer of Sprite Lamp is already working on a solution, together with some guys of this forum.

I found a link on the Sprite Lamp website, seems like I cannot post it here... okay, type "sprite lamp construct2" in google search and it should be among the first sites.

On skeletal animation integration:

Generating normal maps for body parts or for an atlas in one is absolutely possible.

In the KS video, there is an example of a character, seen in a Spine-runtime, with dynamic lighting from a shader, written by a friend of mine.

As the principle is basically the same, this shouldn't be hard to implement for Spriter, too.

To FraktalZero's question: Sprite DLight's normal maps are in tangent space, which seems to be standard for normal map generators.

Last but not least, I would like to point out the difference to other normal map generators again, as people keep asking over and over after reading "normal map generator":

Common normal map generators like CB & co simply cannot create voluminous shapes, they just produce a bevel-like bump effect from a surface.

LemonDROP has posted a nice example for this, I will upload a normal map made by Sprite DLight for the same artwork and a shader preview later, so everybody can see the difference.

And then you have tools like Sprite Lamp, that actually can produce great normal maps, depending on the skill of the artist who draws the required 2-5 lighting profiles.

The downside here is obvious: For larger projects, this means a HUGE amount of work, and you need at least some basic artistic skills to paint nice shading for multiple directions.

Long story short: Sprite DLight generates a normal map for a sprite or even a sprite sheet by only using this sprite as the input image.

Load a sprite, press a button, if you want, adjust the result with sliders and options, save the generated map and enjoy.

You won't have as much control over the result as you have with Sprite Lamp, but the simplification and time saving payoff is beyond compare.

There you go....

Normal map for LemonDROP's sprite, created by Sprite DLight:

Dynamic lighting preview, recorded in the Sprite Lamp shader: