Light you carry | Devlog of Frostwake, a survival game

At night the only warm light in Frostwake comes from fire. A cabin stays dark until a stove or a candle burns inside, and away from the campfire the survivor will carry a torch or a storm lantern. Both now work in the look test.

A cabin that shows it is lit

From our camera you look down on the roof, so a lit cabin shows by the light it spills onto the snow. Getting that took six captures. First the light inside sat under the floor, because the cabin stands on posts. Then it sat against a wall. Even placed right, it barely got out, because the windows sit under the eaves and the eaves hide them from above.

The log cabin from above at night in blue moonlight, its roof and porch dark, with nothing showing that a fire burns inside. — One of the early tries. A fire burns inside, and from above the cabin looks as dark as an empty one.

So each window now has its own light outside it. Driven by the fire inside, it throws a warm patch across the porch and the snow. Smoke rises from the chimney while the stove burns. The light in the room itself stays off until there are interiors to look at. It cost about 0.3 ms per frame on the graphics card and showed nothing from outside.

The same cabin at night with warm orange light falling from under the eaves across the porch and onto the snow. — A fire lit inside. The warm light on the porch and snow is how you see it from above.

A candle can light the cabin too. Its windows glow dimmer and steadier than with the stove, and no smoke rises from the chimney.

The cabin at night with a smaller, softer patch of warm light on the porch. — Lit by a candle. Dimmer than the stove, and no smoke.

Torch and lantern

The torch and the lantern matter a great deal to the game we want, so both got built properly. In the look test the stand-in carries them.

The torch is a stick with a charred, glowing head and a real flame. Its light flickers hard and throws the carrier's shadow long across the snow. A moving flame now feels the air it moves through, so a walking torch flame bends back, while its sparks and thin smoke drift off with the wind.

Walking with a torch on a clear night, seen from 8 m. The flame bends back as the stand-in walks.

The storm lantern gives a steadier, warmer light behind glass. It hangs from the hand and swings as the carrier walks and stops. The first one read as a small black shape. From above you mostly see its cap, and its glass did not glow. Now the glass glows, a halo sits round it, and we turned the light down a little because the snow under it burned white. It also hung in the left hand, behind the body as seen from the camera. It now hangs from the right hand, held out 0.42 m.

Walking with the lantern, seen from 6 m. It swings from the hand.

A carried light costs about 0.5 ms of main-thread time per frame, most of it for its shadows, and almost nothing on the graphics card. With the campfire, the stove and a candle lit and a torch carried, all at once, the frame stays within our budget.

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