Luminaire

Filed under: Game Maker

Luminaire… The start of the GM lighting era. This was developed shortly after GM6.1 was released with the new surfaces feature which I’ve been hammering mark about. It is old, outdated, and horribly inefficient because I was rushing to release it and show everyone that this can be done. Compared to it’s modern cousins like L3S, it’s not very much, but people have been continuously asking for it regardless. I don’t know why, but here it is.

I wouldn’t recommend using it in a serious game where L3S would really shine , but for smaller ones it should be just fine. The other thing you can learn from it is the way the engine is used to set the mood in a scene. I think the reason people still pick this over modern, better engines is because the demo is gorgeous. The others don’t do too well in this area. So look at the demo and learn how the eyecandy works. Notice how the lights fade in and out, notice the lights overhead, the use of glow. All these things aren’t technically complicated but add up to the ‘wow’ effect.
Look at it and learn from it, but you should really be using L3S or similar if you use a lighting engine. Make no mistake about it, this is a first generation lighting engine. In fact it’s the first lighting engine. It’s really oooooold! We’re now in 3rd gen dynamic soft shadows age!

Game info contains everything you’ll need to know to use this.

Luminaire

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Tags: effects, eyecandy, tutorials