Lighting plays a crucial role in the visual appeal of Ashes of Creation, aligning with the game's goal of achieving realistic and authentic graphics. The excitement peaked among players when Intrepid Studios transitioned the project to Unreal Engine 5 two years ago, promising cutting-edge technology for the game. Initially, the visuals seemed promising, but over this period, the anticipated quality appears to have diminished for reasons that are not immediately clear. In this discussion, I aim to articulate the issue, explore potential causes, and consider potential solutions.
Lighting 2 years ago
Remember when we got our first taste of Unreal Engine 5 on that livestream in December 2021? The lighting in the gameplay looked pretty darn good, right? My guess is Intrepid cranked up Lumen to the max for that, but I'll get back to that later. If you take a close look, it's not like the textures and models are mind-blowingly better in those screenshots. It's just that the lighting makes the whole scene pop and look way cooler.
Best visual showcase - Weather
The graphics hit their high point in Ashes of Creation during that weather showcase in May 2022. Seriously, look at the environments – the particles, textures, and lighting just make those screens pop. But let's zoom in on the lighting talk. Shadows in broad daylight aren't usually pitch black; light bounces around, making shadows softer. Take a peek at the first screenshot – no super dark spots, and the character's shadow is there but not too in-your-face. Unfortunately, it's just because it's a good shot. Now, in the second screenshot, you've got moments with pure black voids and lots of really dark shadows. The ground is even throwing some black shadows on itself, if you can believe it.
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Lighting evolution since then
On one of the recent streams, the Node showcase from August 2023, it seems like the lighting took a bit of a nosedive. I mean, all the shadows are crazy dark for some reason. Everything is either super bright or almost pitch black, and it's not a great look. And it's not just the environmental lighting that's off now. Check out the third screenshot – the point lights from the village lanterns are barely giving off any light, and what little it does emit hardly spreads into the surroundings. I've got a theory on why that might be, but we'll get into that a bit later.
The glimpse of hope
On the latest stream, the winter scene gives me a glimmer of hope. The lighting is still a bit wonky, with hardly any shadows and everything looking very rough, nothing appears to have any smoothness, which isn't the case in real life (check out the first two screenshots for what I mean). But the shadows we do see seem okay; it looks like maybe some light bounced around to make them brighter. Is that what's happening? I'm not sure, but hey, as long as it looks good, right?
My reasoning behind what's going on
I believe Intrepid Studios initially showcased the Unreal Engine 5 video with Lumen set to max, but it looks like they might have realized it's too heavy on performance. Since then, they've likely scaled down the settings significantly or even turned it off completely. Until the recent stream this month, it seemed like light wasn't bouncing at all. All the spell and point light effects came off as basic and kinda rough. Shadows were super dark and not great. However, in this stream, it looks like the shadows got some improvement, so my guess is that new lighting engineers are still getting the hang of things in the project.
It's worth noting that Lumen isn't essential for achieving good-looking realistic graphics – plenty of other games didn't use it. With the new employees Intrepid has brought on board and the signs that lighting is slowly getting better, I'm optimistic that during Alpha 2, Intrepid might just surprise us with a new level of game quality we didn't think we'd get.
