I don''t know how familiar any of you are with fantasy world of Forgotten Realms but one of the areas that really interest me in the world is the Underdark. It''s basicly a world under the surface filled with twisting tunnels and huge caverns, and for the most part it is completely lightless. How could you even go about setting a game in such an environment. The species that live there rely on infravision (seeing heat), sound and smell. Infravision is an obvious choice but I doubt anyone wants to spend their entire time gaming viewing the world in various patterns of heat. Another choice would be (for surface dwellers anyway) more traditional lighting, torches, lanterns etc. But what if you wanted the game to focus instead on those who are at home in the lightless world?

Make the residents of the Underdark see their world with normal game vision. You can explain that they use infravision to see, but it all comes down to a matter of interpretation of those visuals.

For the characters... infravision is the "normal". Now since this is a game for us humans, just translate the character's "normal" into our normal. The mind registers its "normal" the best.

Now then, when the character's step into a lit environment, make it so bright they can't see. So they require some variation of sunglasses to "see" in the light. But when wearing these glasses, change the vision quality/style. (for instance, compare it with us employing Night Vision ... it looks weird).

[edited by - Veovis on December 15, 2003 11:31:35 PM]

Since they see heat, then to make it accurate the game would have to be done in infrared. But that would turn off gamers I think. Instead maybe you could use illumination, the warmer an object is the brighter it becomes and cooler it is the darker the object.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
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I believe in the newer rules they have darkvision in place of infravision which, according to a few drawings I''ve seen, makes you see things silvery/gray with lighter shaded outlines...

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Original post by TechnoGoth
Since they see heat, then to make it accurate the game would have to be done in infrared. But that would turn off gamers I think. Instead maybe you could use illumination, the warmer an object is the brighter it becomes and cooler it is the darker the object.

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Yeah thats what I was saying. They wouldn''t want to play the entire game like that. But there are many things that infravision could tell you that wouldn''t work all that well with illumination. Like tracking the foolish surface dwellers by the heat left behind from their foot prints.

Veovis: I know pretty much the only feasible way to do it is to change the infravision into what we would consider normal but alot is lost in the transition.

kordova: Actually they have darkvision and infravision. Dark vision pulles from the smallest light sources (creating a washed out grey world) where infravision relies on heat (think mood ring colors).

I think alot of the atmosphere would be lost too if it was simply using standard illumination for the gamer.

You could also possibly make certain parts of the scene get brighter (more seeable) when noises are made in the scene. For example, when someone walks, the sound of their shoes make everything near their feet brighter.

Hope that makes sense.

You can do all sorts of fun things with textures and pixel shaders here, and I suggest you do so. Infravision is not normal vision, and this could conceivably add to the underdark experience a great deal, especially if it meshes with the gameplay.

Your limiting factors should be aesthetic, not scientific; this is a fantasy setting. So what you want is to provide something that looks absolutely nothing like real vision, but that nevertheless obeys certain principles through which we discern images.

* Some form of depth cueing should be in place. I suggest that objects near the foreground be of brighter hues, such as reds and yellows. Backgrounds should fade to blue.

* Depending on the emotional impact you''re going for, faces should probably be easily recognizable and discernable. Think back to all the horror movies you''ve ever seen: the number one way to make a person strange and monstrous is to give him a weirdly formed face. Realistically, not everyone you meet in the Underdark will be an enemy. Those who are not should have faces that, while discolored, look more or less normal in form.

* Visible distance should not be sharply limited. The ability to see a good distance is essential to navigation. The background can be dim and blue, but it should be visible for at least 100 feet (terrain permitting, of course).

* When the scene is still, there can be a little bit of motion in terms of texture shifting and noise, but don''t overdo it.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

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"Sneftel is correct, if rather vulgar." --Flarelocke

Sneftel: I just worry that it would be a strain seeing such a colorful world all the time. Have you ever tried the thermal goggles in games like Splinter Cell? It can be very disorienting... I couldn't imagine playing an entire game with that sort of effect...

edit: Not the entire game... but the majority of it.

[edited by - tstrimp on December 15, 2003 12:26:19 AM]

The goggles in Splinter Cell are extremely garish. You don''t necessarily have to go all-out like that. Moreover, the Splinter Cell goggles strive for scientific realism, which means that it''s very difficult to make out details in terrain.

The vision I''m thinking of would fudge slightly with transmitted light so that terrain would be easily visible (even without the depth cueing). And the severity of the colors would be balanced to keep players from getting headaches.

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"Sneftel is correct, if rather vulgar." --Flarelocke

How easy would it be to swtch between the infravision and "normal" vision which could be nessicary if a light source was introduced.