GDCE 2013 Shining The Light On Crysis 3

Shining the Light on Crysis 3
Pierre-Yves Donzallaz, Sr. Lighting Artist
Presenter
Name
Pierre-Yves Donzallaz
Title
Sr. Lighting Artist, Crytek
Games
GDC Europe 2013
Plan
Introduction Production Lighting basics Physics & Materials Real-Time Lighting Features Case Studies
Outdoor Lighting Indoor Lighting Cinematics
Conclusion
GDC Europe 2013
Introduction
Crytek
Founded in 1999 Core pillars
Technology (CryENGINE) Content creation (Crysis, Ryse, Homefront 2, etc.) Publishing (GFACE)
850 employees across 9 studios

Frankfurt (Germany) Nottingham (UK) Kiev (Ukraine) Austin (USA) Budapest (Hungary) Seoul (South Korea) Sofia (Bulgaria) Shanghai (China) Istanbul (Turkey)
GDC Europe 2013
CryENGINE
Development time
+13 years
Motto since CryENGINE 2

Real-time all the time
Platforms
PC & mobile Microsoft Xbox 360 & Xbox One Sony PS3 & PS4
Licensees
Games Military (simulation & training) Architecture (visualization) Etc.
GDC Europe 2013
CryENGINE\Games and Licensees

Games
Ryse & Homefront 2 (Crytek) Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 (City Interactive) MechWarrior Online (Piranha Games) Monster Hunter Online (Tencent, Capcom) Star Citizen (Cloud Imperium Games Corporation) Civilization Online (2K, XLGAMES) Etc.
Serious games licensees

Enodo (Architecture) RealTime Immersive (Military) Thales Group (Military) Lockheed Martin (Military) Meggitt (Aerospace) Etc.
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Crysis Franchise
Type
First Person Shooter
Character
Super soldier equiped with a Nanosuit
Focus
Sandbox gameplay Visual experience
GDC Europe 2013
Crysis Franchise
Trilogy
Crysis 1 (2007): Awakening of an ancient alien civilization on an island Crysis 2 (2011): Alien invasion in New York Crysis 3 (2013): Awakening and destruction of the alien boss in New York
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Production
Crysis 3 Focus
Improved graphics quality
Push the visual quality even further Set a new benchmark for next generation games
Improved gameplay
Bigger levels More variety
Environments Weapons Enemies
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Initial constaints
Smaller core team
~150 people on Crysis 2 ~100 people on Crysis 3 Frankfurt team
Handful of graphics programmers Dozen of environment artists Couple of level artists Couple of FX artists 1 lighting artist
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Initial constaints
Shorter production time
38 months for Crysis 2 23 months for Crysis 3
Create a better game

Do better with less Art bottleneck
Very little place for mistakes
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Art Production Overview

Pre-production
Prototypes & concept arts Art benchmark level
Implementation of the vision of the art direction Improvement of the art pipeline and workflow Creation of art guidelines for the full production
Full production
Iterations and finalization
From white-box to final art
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Concept art
Manhattan + Rain forest + Dome

Pierre-Yves Donzallaz GDC Europe 2013 16
Art Direction
Crysis 1 meets Crysis 2
Natural settings
Overgrown urban environment Exremely dense vegetation Grass fields, rivers, jungles, etc.
Lighting
Dappled lighting Wet materials
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Full production
Overview
All levels in the production pipeline at the same time Sequential focus phases of 1 to 2 weeks for every level
Design pit (Level design director) Art pit (Art director) Optimization pit (RND)
Level 1
Design Pit
Art Pit
Optimization
Level 2
Level 3
Design Pit
Art Pit
Optimization
Design Pit
Art Pit
Optimization
No post-production
Lighting and FX on time
Level 4
Level N
Design Pit
Art Pit
Optimization
Design Pit
Art Pit
Post mortem
Tight production time Smooth and straightforward production Game delivered on time with a great art quality
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Lighting Basics
Lighting Basics
What makes lighting interesting?
Intention Contrast Directionality Depth
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Intention
Storytelling and emotions
Color temperature
Warm tones: happiness, hope, security, etc. Cold tones: sadness, danger, darkness, etc.
Fog
Low density: exploration, security, etc. High density: unknown, danger, etc.
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Contrast & Range

Definitions
Contrast: Difference of luminance or color in a picture Range: Absolute difference between the darkest and brightest tones in a picture
Shadows
Mediums
Highlights
Usual objective
Obtain a wide range and high contrasted picture
Narrow range
Pierre-Yves Donzallaz GDC Europe 2013
Wide range
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Contrast
Low contrast
High contrast
25
Contrast
Low contrast
High contrast
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Color Contrast
High contrast from complementary colors Commonly emphasized tones
Cold tones
Sky Shadows
Warm tones
Skin Fires & explosions
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Color Contrast\Movie Posters
Image credits: Universal, Warner Bros, Disney & Sony

Color Contrast
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Lighting Ratio
Relationship between light and darkness
Studio: key light and fill light Outdoor: sun light and shadows
Very low lighting ratio

Very high lighting ratio

30
1.5:1 (Overcast)
4:1 (Sunny day)
10:1 (Overdone)
Directionality
Position of the key light sources
Ensure proper lighting ratio Improvement of the player leading
Side (too high lighting ratio)
Back (too high lighting ratio)

Front left (optimal lighting ratio)

34
Directionality and player leading
Depth
Layers with different values or steps Increased dimension factor
Separation Readability
Very low depth

High depth
36
Fog Ramp 4000m
Fog Ramp 2000m
Fog Ramp 1000m
Fog Ramp 500m (final)
Fog Ramp 1000m
Fog Ramp 500m
Fog Ramp 250m
Fog Ramp 125m (final)
Physics & Materials
Non-Metals Overview
Diffuse reflection
Specular reflection
Incident light
Refraction & Absorption Scattering
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Metals Overview
No diffuse reflection
Specular reflection
Incident light
Absorption No scattering
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Surface Roughness
Sharp reflections
Polished surface
Blurry reflections
Rough surface
Materials
Diffuse texture
Specular texture
Glossiness/roughness texture
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Specular Textures
Common mistakes
Total lack of consistency between the specular textures Specular texture created from a diffuse texture (grey-scale & high contrast)
Diffuse texture
Bad specular texture
Solution
Physically-based approach
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
The stronger the angle of incidence of the light, the stronger the reflection.
Augustin-Jean Fresnel (17881827)
Image credit: Wikipedia
Fresnel Effect
Black plastic spheres Reflection coefficient of a non-metal

Reflection Coefficients
Metals
Non-metals
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Physically-Based Specular Color

Specular luminance [0;255]
Most non-metals: 20-70 Metals: +180
Specular color
Non-metals: grey-scaled Metals: slightly colored (gold, copper, nickel)
Non-metals
Metals
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Physically-Based Specular Texture
Physically-based specular color
Diffuse-based specular texture
Physically-based specular texture
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Glossiness\Roughness
Roughness defined by a value [0;255]
Uniform roughness
Matte 0 Rough Polished Mirror 255
Glossiness range
Roughness defined by a glossiness texture

Very important for material definition More artistic freedom for painting details
Scratches Specles Wet areas
Specular texture
Glossiness texture
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Diffuse Textures
Common mistakes
Visible light & shadows Too strong ambient occlusion Too high contrast
Work done by the engine

Lighting & shadows Ambient occlusion Postprocessing Bad diffuse texture
Solution
Lighting control during capture Calibration during and after capture
Good diffuse texture

Diffuse Textures\Capture
Minimize lighting information in the textures
Prevent strong direct light Ensure neutral color balance Ensure flat consistent lighting
Bright daylight
Low sun settings

GDC Europe 2013
Overcast
Image credits: Richard Yot, www.itchy-animation.co.uk
61
Diffuse Textures\Calibration
Shoot reference with color checker Automated or manual software correction
Hold the color checker perpendicular to camera (Minimize Fresnel effect)

Adjust white balance, levels and colors

Image credits: X-Rite, xritephoto.com
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Diffuse Textures\Reference Library

Calibrated reference textures for proof checking
Based on the most representative textures of the game world New textures consistently tweaked to fit the reference textures Lighting calibration based on the reference textures
Vegetation
Mud
Rust
Metal
Rusty stone
Concrete
Bricks
Average
Mirror
Calibrate key textures only

No need to calibrate 10000 textures Trust your eyes for the rest
Art Production Guidelines
Asset Zoo Level

Test level for proof checking assets
Level based on the Art Benchmark level Check assets concistency at a glimpse with multiple lighting debug modes Store all assets in one single level
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Asset Zoo Level\Flat shading

Pure flat indirect lighting
Control the consistency of the diffuse textures No post processing, no reflection, no ambient occlusion, no fog
Standard lighting mode

Flat shading mode

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Asset Zoo Level\Clipping Control

Visualize blacks and whites clipping
Good estimation of clipping on TVs with limited color space (16-235)
Flat shading mode
Clipping control mode
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Asset Zoo Level\Clipping Control
Black: RGB 0-15

White: RGB 240-255

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Lighting calibration
Gamma chart and color gradient chart
Control lighting influence on the textures Control Post FX influence on the colors and white balance Prevent clipping of the blacks and whites
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Lighting calibration
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Monitors
Ensure all artists work with proper monitors (IPS, *VA or PLS panels)
View angles of low end monitors (TN panels)
View angles of higher end monitors (IPS panel)
Calibrate all monitors to industry standards to ensure consistency across workstations

sRGB, Gamma 2.2, 6500K and ~100cd/m2
Image credits: www.anandtech.com

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Monitors & TVs

Most gamer monitors
- TN panel technology - Terrible vertical view angles
Overall Gamma depending on sitting height & screen inclination
Most televisions
- Terrible color settings with dynamic contrast & sharpening - Reduced output range (16-240 or 16-235) - HDMI mess in consoles settings (Standard, Extended, etc.) + Acceptable Cinema settings
+ Very low reaction time (~2ms)
Lack of standardization for visual equipment

For sound systems: THX certification For displays: ?
Why care about colors then?

Consistency within the company between work and review stations
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Real-Time Lighting Features
Real-Time lighting
Real-time, all the time
HDR Lighting, shadows & atmosphere HDR Image-based lighting Ambient occlusion Global illumination
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Rendering Techniques
Forward rendering
Every object shaded sequentially Multiple passes required for multiple light sources Issues
Waste of resources on pixels covered by multiple objects Waste of resources complex scenes (many objects and lights)
Deferred rendering
Geometry and lighting data extracted from the scene G-Buffer (geometry) and L-Buffer (lighting) Every pixel shaded in one pass Issues
Forward passes required for complex shaders and transparency Difficulty to exclude lights from certain objects or areas
Complexity
Amount of geometries * amount of lights
Complexity
Amount of pixels * amount lights
Typical usage
World with low light sources usage (sun) Older hardware (no MRTs support)
Typical usage
Lighting heavy scenes (interior)
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Deferred rendering
Hybrid deferred rendering in CryENGINE
Most of the shading processed in one single pass (opaque geometry) Forward pass still required for transparency & complex shaders (hair & skin)
Final frame
Deferred (Red) & Forward (Green)

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Deferred rendering\G-Buffer
Albedo YCbCr (RG)
Specular (B)
Depth
Normals (RG)
Glossiness (B)
GDC Europe 2013
Translucency (A)
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HDR Lighting
High precision
PC/ PS3 : FP16 Xbox 360: FP10
Large range
Many F-stops Nearly zero banding
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Light Entities\Omni Light

Point light Spherical light volume Shadow mapping
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Light Entities\Projector Light

Point light Conical light volume Projection texture Shadow mapping
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Light Entities\Projector Light FOV
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Light entities\Area Light

Surface light (rectangle) Shadow mapping with penumbra approximation Projection texture (optional)
Narrow light source & sharper shadows

Wide light source & blurrier shadows

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Environment probe
Capture of the lighting in an HDR image
Reflections (specular component) Ambient (diffuse component)
Workflow
1. Placement of the probe in a key location
Center of rooms and outdoor areas Corners and edges of large areas Areas with strong light variations Area with sensitive materials (strong specular luminance & glossiness)
2. In-editor generation of an HDR cubemap texture (6 faces) 3. Rendering using a spherical or parallelepiped volume
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Environment Probes\Cubemap
HDR cubemap (tone mapped)
HDR cubemap (tone mapped)
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Sun Shadows
Cascades shadowmapping
6 sun cascades Closer cascades to the camera have higher resolutions Possible shadow map acne on higher cascades
Vegetation on
Vegetation off
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Cascaded Sun Shadow Map
Ambient Occlusion
Simulation of light accessibility Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
Compute the occlusion amount of random pixels on the screen Developed for Crysis 1 (2007) Improved for Crysis 2 (2011) Low performance cost (consoles)
Screen Space Directional Occlusion

Improved SSAO based on light source direction Contact shadows Developed for Crysis 2 DirectX11 upgrade (2011) Improved for Crysis 3 (2013) Higher performance cost but higher quality (PC)
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No Ambient Occlusion
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (console)
Screen Space Directional Occlusion (PC)
No Ambient Occlusion
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
Screen Space Directional Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion
Screen space techniques
Dumb occlusion
Total ignorance about objects outside the screen or behind the camera
Simulation of light occlusion for micro details (< 2 m)
Macro Ambient Occlusion (> 2 m)

Vertex colors (baked)
Good quality when baking an entire scene Not recommended in the player area for diffuse consistency Low flexibility
Darkening lights (dynamic)

Hand-made ambient occlusion High flexibility
Manual Ambient Occlusion

Subtractive approach
Bright global ambient Dark local ambient
Negative lights (ambient lights) Environment probes
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Manual Ambient Occlusion
Default Lighting
SSDO
Sun Light
Manual darkening
Global Illumination
Manual Light Bounces
Global Illumination (GI)

Procedural 3D grid of lights
Every surface considered as a potential light caster Sun support only
Pros
Dynamic GI for outdoor environment Decent results in noisy environment
Cons
Unusable for interior lighting Low precision and highly inconsistent No automated occlusion (leaking)
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No global illumination
Global illumination
Manual bounce lights (helpers)
No global illumination
Global illumination
Manual bounce lights (helpers)
Time of Day
Outdoor lighting tool
Keyframe-based 24 hours cycle Moving sun ~100 parameters Sun & sky light Fog & HDR skybox Post-processing
Tone mapping & eye adaption Color balance Photo filter
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Sun position
Crysis 1
Mix of static and moving sun Ideal for semi-open world environment
Crysis 2 & 3
Scripted sun position
Up to 10 static sun positions per level Sun coordinates changed in streaming tunnels
Ideal for contained environments with large scale assets

Ensure optimal lighting ratio in every area Prevent areas from being totally in the shade
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Sky Techniques Evaluation

Painted skybox
+ More dramatic - Old school - Low flexibility - Difficult authoring - Often looking fake (shading)
Photo-based hemispheres
+ Best visual result + Compatible with procedural skybox - Sun shading
Cloud billboards/decals
+ High flexibility for cloud placement + Compatible with procedural skybox - Alpha-blending overhead
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Sky System
Technologies
Procedural HDR skybox Alpha-blended HDR clouds hemispheres Tileable cloud shadows
Dynamism
Moving clouds Moving cloud shadows No more old gen static painted skyboxes!
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Sky Domes
Main sky dome
Detailed clouds Limited rotation angle
Preservation of sun shading
Visible on all platforms
Secondary sky dome

Low opacity mist Constant rotation Visible on PC only Alpha-blending cost
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Cloud Shadows
Revived technology from Crysis 1
Scrolling tileable texture High tiling to maximize shadows variation on the ground Black clamped to grey to prevent too dark shadows
Pros
Give more life to the environment Leading the player in the right direction
Cons
Inconsistent with the actual clouds hemispheres
Cloud shadow texture

Real-Time Lighting Analysis

Pros
Very fast lighting rendering times
A few milliseconds per frame only
Cons
Strong limitation for low end platforms
Amount of lights Radius Shadow casting Overlapping
Instant visualization of the final results Moving and dynamic lighting
Waste of resources on non-dynamic scenes

Static sun lighting Static interior lighting
Huge amount of manual work

Time-consuming interior lighting Manual light bounces Manual light occlusion
Case study
Outdoor Lighting
Canyon Case Study

Deep canyon
Dark & cold Dappled lighting Light beams
Technique used
Light subtraction
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Flat lighting
SSDO
Height-based ambient
Darkening (helpers)
Wet lights (helpers)
Dappled lighting (helpers)
Light bounces (helpers)
Global environment probe
Light shafts (helpers)
Final (PC) (helpers)
Final (PC)
Final (console spec)
Canyon Case Study

PC (670 GTX)
60 lights @ 2 ms
Console
20 lights @ 6 ms
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Case study
Indoor Lighting
Interior Case Study

Additive approach
Dark global ambient Addition of lights & probes
Intensive usage of lighting modules (prefabs)

Copy by reference (instancing) Light a large interior only with a few prefabs
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Final
Flat Ambient
Darkening
Local light setup I
Local light setup II
Prefab creation
Prefab
Prefab duplication (instancing)
Prefab editing
Prefab editing
Reference materials
Local probe
Final (PC)
Final (console spec)
Interior Case Study

PC (670 GTX)
150 lights @ 4 ms
Console
90 lights @ 10 ms
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Case study
Cinematics
Cinematic in Crysis
First person perspective only
Very limited player camera control
Long takes only

Harder to hide lighting tricks
Off-screen lights Depth helpers
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Character Cinematic Lighting

Main Focuses
Ensure characters emotions visibility Ensure proper skin shading Separate characters from the background
3 point lights setup for faces

Key light Fill light(s) Back light
Face lights attached to characters

Torso or head joint
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Psycho
Claire
Rash
3 point lights setup
3 point lights setup problems
No character lighting
Key light
Back light
Fill light 1
Fill light 2
No character lighting
Back light
Fill light
Key light
Fill light
Back light
Key light
Back light (sun)
Key light
Fill light
Conclusion
Lighting Statistics
8 levels
54.55% shadow casting lights (PC)
14716 lighting entities 224 probes
5140 omni lights

3063 projector lights
2043 prefabs
604 light clipping volumes
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Next Gen Lighting

More physically-based pipelines
High quality lighting approximation in real-time Large scale ambient occlusion in real-time
True volumetric effects

...
Special Thanks
Tiago Sousa, Principal Graphics Engineer Carsten Wenzel, Technical Director Magnus Larbrant, Senior Art Director Entire Crytek team
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We are hiring!
http://www.crytek.com/career
Questions?
Pierre-Yvez Donzallaz
Mail: pierre@crytek.com Twitter: @pydon

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Shining the Light on Crysis 3

Pierre-Yves Donzallaz, Sr. Lighting Artist

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

850 employees across 9 studios

GDC Europe 2013

Motto since CryENGINE 2

GDC Europe 2013

CryENGINE\Games and Licensees

Serious games licensees

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

Create a better game

GDC Europe 2013

Art Production Overview

GDC Europe 2013

Manhattan + Rain forest + Dome

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

Contrast & Range

GDC Europe 2013

Color Contrast\Movie Posters

Image credits: Universal, Warner Bros, Disney & Sony

GDC Europe 2013

Very low lighting ratio

Very high lighting ratio

4:1 (Sunny day)

Back (too high lighting ratio)

Front left (optimal lighting ratio)

Directionality and player leading

Very low depth

Fog Ramp 4000m

Fog Ramp 2000m

Fog Ramp 1000m

Fog Ramp 500m (final)

Fog Ramp 1000m

Fog Ramp 500m

Fog Ramp 250m

Fog Ramp 125m (final)

Physics & Materials

Refraction & Absorption Scattering

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

GDC Europe 2013

Bad specular texture

Black plastic spheres Reflection coefficient of a non-metal

GDC Europe 2013

Physically-Based Specular Color

GDC Europe 2013

Physically-Based Specular Texture

Physically-based specular color

Diffuse-based specular texture

Physically-based specular texture