Quote Originally Posted by Abriael View Post
Those three lights, as they are implemented now, just need to look good in their lighting effect, no other tweaks are needed. Setting their intensity and direction is very simple, because the effect you want to attain is simple.

Now say that the three lights have to involve dynamic shading and lighting. You need to manually reset every single intensity and direction, because now the lights have a completely different environmental and aesthetical effect than they did. They cast shadows, they interact with each other. They may be too intense and actually hide details of the environment that you don't want to hide, or even be too much "in the face" of the camera, detracting from the whole scene. You may also have to tweak the color, because it's very possible that the original color doesn't interact well with the textures of the environment.

You cannot just toggle "lights on!" and leave it like that. The result would be ugly. If a novice programmer could easily do that (it's not even just a matter of coding, it involves art direction and coordination with the art department), I'm afraid that novice programmers would find jobs in the industry much easier.

It's not random that development studios have dedicated artists just for lighting.
This is a valid point and a good one. I will cut SE some slack on the shading portion. Since they didn't design the game to have shadows originally, it would take a lot of work for them to implement them now when there are bigger fish to fry.

I hope they take the time in the future to add this effect. It will further futureproof this game beyond your wildest dreams!


I still stand firm that adding reflection to the water is a no-brainer, and light on the system resources.