examples of "dry" unified lighting and shadowing?

[inlimbo]

i'm looking for examples that aren't heavy on shaders and modern specular effects. i can name a few games, though none of them have true unified systems (if any games do), and they aren't quite perfect examples. but they're close to what i'm looking for:

splinter cell/pandora tomorrow
battlefield 2/2142
graw
mgs4

crysis is a good reference in some ways, of course, but i'd prefer if it were tweaked. if anyone has suggestions, i want to hear them. examples from outside gaming are welcome

 

[AlNom]

What about doom 3? You can just turn off the effects to leave the lighting and shadows.

 

[homerdog]

The STALKER games maybe, but I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "dry".

 

[inlimbo]

by "dry" i mean that i'm looking for examples that are more natural looking on the whole, with shadow blending and falloff that evokes the presence of ambient light, though not necessarily through current ambient occlusion techniques

doom 3 doesn't qualify because it's too hyper-real and has extremely high contrast shadowing, giving it a wetter look. even crysis falls victim to similar issues, unfortunately. stalker is in between, as are some of the games i mentioned, but it's a good example in some open areas

edit: and though crysis is a showcase for some very natural lighting one hand, i feel like it approaches the uncanny valley environmentally, if that makes sense, which is why i'm looking for examples that are pared down

 

[AlNom]

Ah... ok. I probably should have asked that question first.

How about Max Payne 2?

 

[inlimbo]

max payne 2 is good, but there isn't a lot real-time shadowing, right?. i can't remember exactly.

i'd really want to see something with lots of shadow casting that's still close to what i'm describing. max payne 2 is a good example as far as the general look is concerned, though

 

[Tchock]

Splinter Cell Conviction seems quite dry for a current-gen game. Too bad it won't be out till '10.

Dead Space has a bit of specular round the edges, but falloff is at least semirealistic (compared to id Tech 4 grotesqueness)

Mirror's Edge?

 

[inlimbo]

conviction is a good one. i suppose prince of persia 2008 is as well.

mirror's edge would be if it were dynamic, even if it wouldn't be feasible at that quality. but then as much as i love mirror's edge's look, and believe me that i do, i wish it were a little less shader heavy, so something similar could be done. and that's definitely along the lines of what i want to see

 

[Davros]

i'd really want to see something with lots of shadow casting

you should try Severance Blade of Darkness
demo :
http://www.gamershell.com/download_4779.shtml

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Try Thief 3, if I remember it had some very convincing realtime dynamic shadows. I'm not sure if it's just my memory painting it better than it was, but it was certainly a standout at the time, and I still hold it as one of the best dynamic shadow implementations I've ever seen.

The only problem is that it's set pretty much entirely at night.

Regards,
SB

 

[Tchock]

Speaking of Thief, you should try newer videos of The Dark Mod (based on iDT 4)

Without specularity trying to make you throw up, iDT4's stencil shadowing seems to be doing much better.

p/s: Not sure if they're still building off Doom 3's build, Quake 4 seemed to have given it better shadowing I think...

 

[Sxotty]

SB your memory is painting it better than it was. That is ok though.

 

[homerdog]

Titan Quest

 

[inlimbo]

the dark mod looks like a great mod. thanks for bringing that to my attention. and the blade of darkness is also really kind of neat. i never would've figured it existed

i found a crysis mod called red mesa recently, and though it's still kind of overloaded with effects, it has some nice lighting. sort of a similar approach i'd like to take with the editor if i ever had the patience for it

 

[zed]

not to blow my own horn (well actually )
but my engine has handles mutlple( well >10 but less than 1000) shadow casting lights for years since 2004 IIRC
though Im a bit confused with the OPs question as in 'dry unified lighting'

 

[Richard]

though Im a bit confused with the OPs question as in 'dry unified lighting'

I interpret it as "easy on the wet look caused by out of control specular". Though I'd never consider BF2 a unified lighting poster child, wet or dry.

 

[inlimbo]

it's got some things going for it, though

 

[Richard]

Could you expand a bit? I'd think having pervasive precomputed and realtime shadows (very noticeable even) would automatically disqualify it.

 

[inlimbo]

you're right, but it's still partially dynamic and it's a good reference for me simply because and it matches the kind of look i'm after and could now reasonably be done completely dynamically

 

[homerdog]

Why is Crysis not a good example? It's not "wet" looking, unless something's supposed to actually be wet, and it's the posterchild for unified lighting.