What kind of lighting is this game using and how do I replicate it?

Development Programming & Scripting Multiplayer & Networking
1

Looking at this game: Dragon Ball Legends: All Sparking Characters / All Super Attacks so far (2018 - 2019) - YouTube it has some really cool graphics a cel shader kind, not to mention a method of using a light source without having an actual direction of where the light is coming from. I’ve exported the assets of this game however I am struggling to simulate the same kind of lighting. I’ve searched for it on the tabs but to no avail.

Help much appreciated :slight_smile:

2

A game like that you would not need to make use of a light source say as in a skylight or directional as a material can emit it’s own lighting.
An option is there is a HDRI back drop available in 4.26 that would be a good starting point

I suggest turning of cast shadows

3

Hi Frankie, thanks for the help. I have implemented the HDRI backdrop, however I’m using the HDRI backdrop from the game that has multiple layers for the clouds in the sky, etc. How do I make it so that my own panorama emits light like the HDRI backdrop? Also how do I turn off cast shadows? Thank you

4

That cel shading light absolutely has a particular source! You don’t get the lit versus dark areas around the shapes of the characters without some chosen light position.

The look of cel shading comes down to two things:

  • The art needs to be created with cel-style flat colors, rather than normal maps and painted highlights
  • The light calculation needs to quantize the light contribution; rather than doing a soft fade based on the normal dot light, you’d want to map the light hemisphere to just a few posterized levels
5

I see, how would I get that same kind of light source? I’ve tried using something from the tabs but it ends up looking awful and there’s shadows everywhere

6

I just Googled “unreal cel shading” and there were both YouTube videos and text-based tutorials for how to do it.
Try it! You might like it!

7

I know about cel shading, I’m talking more so about how to get my own HDRI background to emit the same light that the default one unreal has built in?

8

The one Unreal has built in is typically based on a scene capture – render everything around the scene, similar to a reflection capture, then filter it according to whatever your lighting model is, and send a ray into this sphere/cube map to sample what the light contribution is.

So, you should be able to filter your HDRI, and build a cube map out of it, and use that filtered cube map as your light source.

9

The problem is I don’t know how to do that

10

How do I make it so the HDRI I have emits light like the one in UE4?