Dynamic lighting - we need plenty more

The spell Shock Nova is great, because it has a dynamic lighting effect that actually lights up the surrounding, for a flashing moment.

We need to see more of this sort of dynamic lighting for effects. Fireballs, projectiles, cosmetic item glows, basically everything that has "neon colours" or "looks magic" should have dynamic lighting added to them, or even outright replacing them.

Because as far as realism goes, if something is glowing, you don't really see a blob of white, instead you see the surrounding light up, and the blob of light doesn't exist.

For example, if Molten Strike's lava actually lit up (lighting) the surroundings it will look great, especially in dark caves, you will actually have flashing moments of turning the enviroment into an atmospheric "lava hell" when you stop and fight mobs.

TLDR: Please more dynamic lighting

We had to remove them all because everyone's fps dropped like crazy from all the lights. If we were using a deferred rendering method for out engine we wouldn't have this problem. Sadly we cannot change this mid game.

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Russell wrote:

Sadly we cannot change this mid game.

I'm a big fan of dynamic lighting, so I'm just curious what exactly this means - does it mean all the art assets would have to be revamped due to how they've been created, or that the structure of the engine literally can't handle deferred lighting without a complete revamp? I'm essentially asking if it's a "It would take a lot of valuable dev time" issue, or a "No, this literally can't be done" thing.

Russell, your answer is disappointing. You blame FPS, you blame rendering method, you blame it impossible to change "mid-game" whatever it even means. Basically you just says "we can't do it bcos we can't change codes". Basically you are saying it's not actually an FPS problem, it's not actually a rendering problem, it's actually YOUR problem of not able to change the rendering.

This is disappointing.

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074 wrote:

Russell, your answer is disappointing. You blame FPS, you blame rendering method, you blame it impossible to change "mid-game" whatever it even means. Basically you just says "we can't do it bcos we can't change codes". Basically you are saying it's not actually an FPS problem, it's not actually a rendering problem, it's actually YOUR problem of not able to change the rendering.

This is disappointing.

This is utter bullshit.
The root of the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with Russell, it has to do with the fact that Path of Exile runs on a really shitty engine. GGG knows its shitty, and nobody is surprised. It's their first engine and started development in 2006 or earlier using 2006 technologies.

The fact that you think the VFX artist has anything to do with coding the engine shows that you don't have the correct level of knowledge on the subject to be placing any sort of blame, or to be commenting on the situation as if you know what you're talking about.

If it's so easy, why don't you go and fix their engine?
http://www.grindinggear.com/?page=careers

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074 wrote:

Russell, your answer is disappointing. You blame FPS, you blame rendering method, you blame it impossible to change "mid-game" whatever it even means. Basically you just says "we can't do it bcos we can't change codes". Basically you are saying it's not actually an FPS problem, it's not actually a rendering problem, it's actually YOUR problem of not able to change the rendering.

This is disappointing.

From what I have read on this issue before - Dynamic lighting causes major FPS problems for players - not just low end machines, but top end setups as well. It IS an FPS issue.

The cause of the issue is the way the underlying game engine renders things. When an skill with a lot of processes and dynamic lights is used, the game quickly eats up the available
computing power.


Keep in mind GGG started making this game over 7 years ago. A newer/better engine would eliminate much of this. Changing game engines isn't just a matter of installing a new program and double clicking an icon.

Since you said "whatever it even means" a detailed explanation wouldn't really help. I will use a comparison, with three codings of the phrase "Have a nice day"

optimized engine: H.A.N.D.

partially optimized engine: Have a nice day.

Non-optimized system: 01001000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01111001

Switching code between different engines is not a simple task.

Compare a cheetah and Usain Bolt.

It's like saying Usain Bolt could run much faster if we just swapped out some of his DNA with a Cheetah. If the DNA was swapped when Usain Bolt was just a single cell fertilized egg, then the improvements might follow naturally.

Trying to change the DNA now would require lots of surgery - attaching a tail for balance, realigning muscles with bones, creating a more flexible spine etc.

It isn't just a cost issue. It could take a couple of years for GGG to be able to redo all the necessary code. In the meantime, nothing else would be happening to improve the game.

If you are willing and able to fund a GGG code swapping team for 2 years, then send support an Email and your get a cashier's check for 1.6 million dollars.

Otherwise - have yourself a very nice day.

Wow, all you people are psychopaths. What's with the passive aggressiveness? I am here to give feedback, not here to fund your game or fix your game myself. Ridiculous.

Well it wasn't really feedback. You asked a question. I answered it. You called it bull because reasons. People got angry at your false accusations.

Anyway its like the others said. Its pretty impossible to change large back end stuff a long way through the game cycle. These kind of things you have to change at the start of the game. We can tack features on here an there but if you pull out the foundation of an engine you gotta spend a lot of time making sure it still works after. We fixed a bug with distortion post processing particles in PoE about 2 years ago for example. I fixed a lot of the extreme distortion effects that this fix caused but there are still a few lingering around that I have to fix when they come up. Now that's with one little material change. If you change the way the engine renders the entire game then you will be fixing stuff for years.

Anyway im not actually sure you wanted to hear this.



TLDR: We are too lazy or something.

and psychopaths

No I don't want to hear this. I want you to make things look good. Why does Shock Nova has dynamic lighting and why can't other brief-moment-things have it as well?

Because you cant multi proj , chain , fork it. Again we had lighting on skills. It was just laggy as hell. Its still on once off effects like shock nova and discharge. Current gen games fix this by having a deferred rendering set up. However PoE engine was set up 6-7 years ago when this wasn't around.