Guild Wars 2

This thread is a ‘follow-up’ of the thread here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Is-Tyria-over-lit

In this thread it turned out that the issue I seem to be having. Which is a regular immersion disconnect due to some subtle weirdness that triggers a subconscious disconnect from feeling immersed.

- It turned out to be not so much about the lighting, but all about the shading. My initial thoughts of maybe Tyria being over lit were not due to over lighting, but due to ‘own shadows’ (so the shadow an object casts on itself, aka. the shadow side of an object) having so little contrast with the lighted side, that it’s as if these objects have no shadow side at all.

- Also, some objects don’t even have an ‘own shadow’, nor do they cast a shadow. This seems to also be the case inside of places: inside caves, inside buildings etc.

- Lastly, the ‘highlights’ on characters are not in tune with the lighting side. Which means that highlight can show up on the side that f/e tree shadows dictate should be the shadow side of the character. (aka. the shadow of the tree is pointing to the right, when standing a bit in front of the tree, and at the same time the highlights on the character are on that same right side).

These are all very subtle things, I mean, in general you won’t be paying conscious attention to where the light comes from, and which side is the shadow side of things. Which is why I had a hard time figuring this out, at first I couldn’t really understand why I was snapped out of immersion every now and then, as there seemed to be no clear causes for it. But on a subconscious level, my brain obviously registers that ‘thing aren’t quite right’, and ‘snap’ I’m back in my room in front (/behind) of my computer instead of ‘on Tyria fighting dragons’.

Having pinpointed this I hope ArenaNet will want to look into:
- The contrast of ‘own shadows’ and ‘cast shadows’ compared to the surroundings. if shadowy areas would be like 15-20% or so darker then they are now, they would already contrast a lot more, and would reduce the ‘crisp’ or ‘unnatural’ feel to them by a large margin. I’m not going for ‘realistic’ here, I’m going for that threshold that makes the world more believable to the subconscious so that I don’t pop out of immersion every time.

- If maybe something can be done to give ‘textured objects’ (basically meaning ‘no’ artefacts but illusionary objects that just consist of a texture) a shadow, or shadow side. And if something can be done about lighting inside of structures, in regards to casting shadows.

- If ‘just maybe’ the highlighting engine has gotten ‘left and right’ mixed up, or if it refers back to the ‘shadow side’ to show highlights instead of the opposite side. I mean it would be an honest mistake if this were the case, but it would make a world of difference in regards to which parts get highlighted.

To some this may all seem like ‘fishing’ for criticism (especially since it took me so long to figure out what it was, and thus it not being some obvious reason that can easily be dealt with), but really, if you make such a good looking game, it will only be the little things that can throw you off. And if something can be done about it, or there is some little mistake made somewhere, that if fixed would increase the quality of the game, then I think it is worth it to bring it up. Especially if it is something that is immersion breaking on the subconscious level.