Hey all.
I have my own editor (Direct2D) and engine, and its all coming along nicely. I now need to add lighting (and possibly later shadows), and after spending the whole day yesterday and today researching on google and reading articles on Gamedev, I'm 100% confused and unsure on how to proceed. I dont want to start on a path that will lead nowhere or make the engine slow to a crawl because of bad implementation.
My game is tile-based, and I would like to add several lighting effects, such as:
- objects emitting light (candles, torches, camp fires)
- global lighting (to have the whole screen appear with a blueish tint, for example)
- particles emitting light
- a light radius around the player
- each light source needs to modulate depending on other light source, if possible.
I read about using alpha bitmaps you draw on top of your objects and such, but I feel that this is an old technique that would be taxing if several "light maps" would be used. It also raises the question of Z-order of the tiles vs player vs lights and shadows, etc.
Then I read about shaders--which I have ZERO experience with--and seem like what I should be using to add lighting to my game.
I would welcome any suggestions, and I am starting the lighting system from scratch so whatever is the current norm is fine with me. I wish to stay with Direct2D if it is an option.
Are shaders the way to go? If so, are there any web/reading material focused on 2D I could read?
Thanks a lot! Sorry if this topic has been covered before, but none of what I found so far was helpful.
PS: As a reference, I am trying to accomplish something similar to how Delver's Drop does lighting to start with:
with a mix of he old Diablo games: