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Tags: Justin Bell; Kazunori Aruga; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
With the funding level already closing in on the next one in line, Obsidian have announced the $2.8M stretch goal for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. This time it's a big one. When the campaign reaches that amount, they'll be able to hire an orchestra to compose the game's entire soundtrack (apparently the first game only had one for some of its tracks), and they'll also increase the level cap to 20 and add additional subclasses (for a total of 3 per class, presumably?). The new Fig update doesn't really have any details on the latter two elements of the stretch goal, but as promised in the last update, it does include a primer on Deadfire's graphical features by lead artist Kaz Aruga. That makes for an update that's all about sound and visuals, with a video for each. I'll post them here, along with the beginning of Kaz's primer:
Hey backers! This is Kaz Aruga, lead artist on the Deadfire team and I'd like to share with you some of the new visual features we've been developing for PoE II: Deadfire! Our artists and programmers have been hard artwork upgrading our legacy pipeline to make content creation more efficient, and researching tech to unlock new possibilities for our artists. To us this means eliminating tedious and error prone work through automation, and empowering artists with shiny new toys. We've made great strides across all art departments over the past year, and I'm very excited to share with you some new features that will make your next visit to Eora a much richer and dynamic experience.
I'll kick things off with a quick list of graphical features we have working in the current build:
Read the rest of the update to learn about the process for lighting Deadfire's characters and environments. Also, bloom effects. Perhaps there'll be more details about the new subclasses in a future update.
With the funding level already closing in on the next one in line, Obsidian have announced the $2.8M stretch goal for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. This time it's a big one. When the campaign reaches that amount, they'll be able to hire an orchestra to compose the game's entire soundtrack (apparently the first game only had one for some of its tracks), and they'll also increase the level cap to 20 and add additional subclasses (for a total of 3 per class, presumably?). The new Fig update doesn't really have any details on the latter two elements of the stretch goal, but as promised in the last update, it does include a primer on Deadfire's graphical features by lead artist Kaz Aruga. That makes for an update that's all about sound and visuals, with a video for each. I'll post them here, along with the beginning of Kaz's primer:
Hey backers! This is Kaz Aruga, lead artist on the Deadfire team and I'd like to share with you some of the new visual features we've been developing for PoE II: Deadfire! Our artists and programmers have been hard artwork upgrading our legacy pipeline to make content creation more efficient, and researching tech to unlock new possibilities for our artists. To us this means eliminating tedious and error prone work through automation, and empowering artists with shiny new toys. We've made great strides across all art departments over the past year, and I'm very excited to share with you some new features that will make your next visit to Eora a much richer and dynamic experience.
I'll kick things off with a quick list of graphical features we have working in the current build:
- Dynamic weather system - Things like trees, ocean, VFX particles and capes all dynamically react to wind. Clouds will cast shadows on the level as they roll by. A feature well worth its own update!
- Parallaxing backgrounds - This is one of the few ways we can convey depth in our areas. Not only can we display backgrounds that scroll at different rates, we can now place VFX and blur them together with the backgrounds. This allows us to add movement and bring these distant backgrounds to life.
- Shader parity* between 3D assets and backgrounds - The rendered backgrounds look amazing now when characters walk by with torches and other in-game light sources. Tight highlights bloom on metals and dance over patches of wet med. *It's not 100%, but it's pretty darn close!
- Antialiasing & Ambient Occlusion - These are more subtle but really help the characters blend into their environments.
- Various Fancy Shaders - Our character artists now have access to shaders that offer better translucent, refractive, and transparent materials. Expect better looking water, ice, and adra materials on our in-game 3D assets.
Read the rest of the update to learn about the process for lighting Deadfire's characters and environments. Also, bloom effects. Perhaps there'll be more details about the new subclasses in a future update.
