Flashlights in games

[desert.snake]

I visited a friend, he decided to play old games ~ 2006-2010, drew attention to the shape of the flashlight beam, very similar to TIR from surefire, especially the uncut old version of the fresnel lens on M3LT/M6LT/UB3T - no spill (could be considered minor), just a fairly wide hotspot. In the game it looks like 100% CRI, it just gives more brightness to the textures without changing the hue of the surfaces. I would like this in reality, with the same beam profile, but not as large size as the SF turboheads



Half-Life 2 and Left4dead

 

[raggie33]

cool stuff

 

[Olumin]

Flashlights in games are like shotgun pellets in games, they disappear after 20 meters. But its gotten better.

 

[fulee9999]

I visited a friend, he decided to play old games ~ 2006-2010, drew attention to the shape of the flashlight beam, very similar to TIR from surefire, especially the uncut old version of the fresnel lens on M3LT/M6LT/UB3T - no spill (could be considered minor), just a fairly wide hotspot. In the game it looks like 100% CRI, it just gives more brightness to the textures without changing the hue of the surfaces. I would like this in reality, with the same beam profile, but not as large size as the SF turboheads



Half-Life 2 and Left4dead
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games ignore the tiny fact of scattering, so even if your beam profile is exactly the same as shown above, you would have a lot larger area illuminated by the reflections

the elzetta AVS head has almost the same beam as pictured above, but it doesn't look like this in reality

 

[desert.snake]

games ignore the tiny fact of scattering, so even if your beam profile is exactly the same as shown above, you would have a lot larger area illuminated by the reflections

the elzetta AVS head has almost the same beam as pictured above, but it doesn't look like this in reality

Elzetta has a pretty good spill and in the center of the hotspot it has a spot of a brighter color, something like an overhotspot. The game is old, if scattering had been implemented, the game would have gone only on supercomputers in those days.

In general, the idea arose, the game has a level editor, it is quite possible to transfer the characteristics of the rays of real lanterns, if not a shade, then a profile for sure. And the actual characteristics of the discharge, and their type of control with brightness levels. And to create something like several traces with different distances and materials, so that you can walk around and see which beam profile is more convenient in any situation.

 

[idleprocess]

The beam profile of the weapon light in Left 4 Dead was seemingly designed to enhance jump scares: negligible spill so whenever it illuminates something it comes as a greater surprise. I do appreciate that the game doesn't use the "recharge" mechanic that so many other games utilize - flashlight manages 1-2 minutes on, similar time to recharge - no level in L4D lasts so long that a typical weapon light would exhaust a single set of cells.

games ignore the tiny fact of scattering, so even if your beam profile is exactly the same as shown above, you would have a lot larger area illuminated by the reflections

This would add considerably more expense to the rendering process. While I'm sure that current generations of hardware are capable of this, it could come at the cost of other areas of detail that the market finds more important.

 

[fulee9999]

Elzetta has a pretty good spill and in the center of the hotspot it has a spot of a brighter color, something like an overhotspot. The game is old, if scattering had been implemented, the game would have gone only on supercomputers in those days.

In general, the idea arose, the game has a level editor, it is quite possible to transfer the characteristics of the rays of real lanterns, if not a shade, then a profile for sure. And the actual characteristics of the discharge, and their type of control with brightness levels. And to create something like several traces with different distances and materials, so that you can walk around and see which beam profile is more convenient in any situation.

ooooh so you want to simulate the flashlights in the game, I thought you wanted it the other way around... okhay okhay gotcha.

To be honest it's perfectly doable, you just need a few whitewall shots at different distances and work your way back from there. It will be far from realistic, but can give you a good idea how an extreme thrower ( e.g. Modlite, Malkoff E2HT and so on ) versus a floody beam would look like in different scenarios. If I recall correctly the source engine has some flying particle physics as well, so you could check it out in a dusty environment.