HDR Lighting is an important aspect of level lighting. In this recipe, we will adjust the environment variables pertaining to some of the advanced HDR effects available within the engine.
In this recipe, we will explore the Environment settings available in the RollupBar.
As we are currently using an HDR compatible sky in the forest level, we can adjust the HDR in the Time Of Day dialog.
- Open the time of day and the very top parameter is the HDR Dynamic Power Factor. Most of the times, to enhance the HDR lighting during daytime scenes, this should be increased.
- Set this to a conservative value of 2 to retain realistic lighting conditions.
- Having adjusted the multiplier, let's now move on to the Environment parameters available to us in the RollupBar. Open the following from the RollupBar:
- At the bottom-most of this rollout is the HDRSetup section. The first that we will adjust is the HDR Contrast. In general, increasing the HDR contrast can heighten the users' perception of intensity. Decreasing it can also be useful in extreme lighting situations. Set it at 1.1 for this example.
- We will not adjust the color for the HDR Blue shift or the BloomColor as the default values are quite sufficient for our needs.
- Adjust the bloom multiplier (BloomMul) to 5 and notice the effects. Often heavy bloom is used to induce a dreamy type effect to the player. It increases the visibility of flares.
- As the flare color is heavily dependent on the view of the player, it is recommended to use a setting that has a fairly bright but neutral color. In our case, let's select a color of RGB 24, 220, 185.
- The final property to adjust is the flares multiplier. This controls the overall intensity of the flares. As this is a mid-day scene with a decent amount of HDR lighting, we should keep this quite low. Adjust the flares multiplier (FlaresMul) to a more realistic value of 0.07.
You have now adjusted the HDR settings in the time of day and the rollout bar!
These settings are saved within the .cry file and thus to the game once it is exported to the engine.
Using these settings you can give the player a dynamically lit, realistic or even stylized environment by pushing some values, such as the bloom multiplier, to extreme values.
You may want to know how to manually create flares or coronas using lights or what texture effects produce pronounced HDR bloom.
When a light entity is placed in the level, it is able to produce a flare effect. However, it does require a material with the correct Light.Flare shader.
While adjusting the setting for HDR flares be mindful of the asset within the level. Some assets may use a glow effect or texture that can produce strong flares and streaks.
This image shows the extreme values in the HDR settings but communicates well the reason the developer must check different assets within their levels as the lighting settings are adjusted.