Abstract

During the past few years interactive 3D environments have become a very important area of research and development. The game industry has gained momentum becoming a multi-billion dollar industry with revenues overcoming those of the movie industry. Enhancements made in computer graphics, especially in real-time rendering, have made its way to game environments. By today's standards, good or highly stylized graphics is a must for every game release. While computer graphics techniques have made it possible to produce aesthetically beautiful interactive 3D environments, the game industry still follows traditional visual design methods used in animation or movie-making. In a highly dynamic environment, such as a game environment, traditional visual design techniques face several limitations: they are (1) time- and labor- intensive, (2) rigid, as they do not adapt well to changes in physical and dramatic configuration of scenes forcing designers to preset these variables, and (3) designed based on control of timing and pacing which are mostly player dependant. In this talk, I will discuss results from several experimental studies addressing ineffectiveness of static lighting design methods in some game situations. I will also discuss a new lighting design model for games, addressing new lighting design goals that are more suited for game environments. I will also discuss a dynamic lighting model that can remedy the problems discussed above by adding: (i) a high-level authoring tool to cut down the content development time, (ii) an intelligent system that adapts the lighting, accounting for context, timing, and gameplay - to present a better adaptable solution to a dynamic environment.