News Meet the Team #6- Ben Parry (Graphics Programmer)

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Frontier really cultivates about the secretive cult. I thought there would be in the interview, a superb screenshot, graphic game, but no. Just the smile of Ben, who, in front his screen (with the buffers for the deferred renderer), seems to think: "you would like to see more huh ? Well no, but soon ..." Otherwise, very good interview (although I did not understand half). We rely on you Ben and your team, to make beautiful rendered in the game.
 
@Ben Parry

Since you are working on the lightning system...

Will the holographic projections on the cockpit panel work as a real light sources and light up the interior "correctly"?

We've had discussions about how we're lighting the interiors, but it's yet to be seen how flexible we can make things.
 
I just realised no one knows what a deferred buffer is :rolleyes: I'm good at this explaining thing, really.
In a forward renderer, you go through all the objects in the scene, drawing them in the right place with all their lighting etc done.
In a deferred renderer, you instead go through all the objects in the scene writing out multiple images that describe everything about the objects - paint colour, shininess, surface normals etc. Then you draw all the lights (as if they were objects) into a final image, reading back all the information about visible surfaces.
The reason you do this is that in a forward renderer you have to decide ahead of time how many and what kind of lights the shader should know about, and you're thinking in terms of "how many per ship/ship area". In a deferred renderer you could add a dozen little spotlights that don't overlap, and you're only paying for the pixels they actually hit.
The price you pay is that all the materials can end up looking a bit samey, but we have plans for that.
 
Mobius: Do your worst. I mean best. Yes.
That was a no-win situation ... whatever you said they would still do it anyway.

Alien: You ascribe an unwarranted level of competence to us.
That is not a good thing to admit ... you guys are super intelligent gods .... don't shatter the illusion !

Gavthomas: It's one of the buffers for the deferred renderer, it shows which way the surface is facing for each pixel. It's pretty.
And I was hoping you were working on making ASBO ships to please the Lave Radio guys :D
 
I just realised no one knows what a deferred buffer is :rolleyes: I'm good at this explaining thing, really.
In a forward renderer, you go through all the objects in the scene, drawing them in the right place with all their lighting etc done.
In a deferred renderer, you instead go through all the objects in the scene writing out multiple images that describe everything about the objects - paint colour, shininess, surface normals etc. Then you draw all the lights (as if they were objects) into a final image, reading back all the information about visible surfaces.
The reason you do this is that in a forward renderer you have to decide ahead of time how many and what kind of lights the shader should know about, and you're thinking in terms of "how many per ship/ship area". In a deferred renderer you could add a dozen little spotlights that don't overlap, and you're only paying for the pixels they actually hit.
The price you pay is that all the materials can end up looking a bit samey, but we have plans for that.

I'm glad to read how you're working on saving resources. Interesting read this thread. And good luck with the photoshops coming your way.
 
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The price you pay is that all the materials can end up looking a bit samey, but we have plans for that.

Go on...unless you have a "gag-order" from above I'm personally interested in hearing what those plans are. I would assume that the interior of a space station would be a good example of an environment where a lot of light sources are active at once. In-game screenshots of these techniques being applied inside a station would certainly be appreciated! :D :p

(Sorry, have to try at least... ;) )
 
Go on...unless you have a "gag-order" from above I'm personally interested in hearing what those plans are. I would assume that the interior of a space station would be a good example of an environment where a lot of light sources are active at once. In-game screenshots of these techniques being applied inside a station would certainly be appreciated! :D :p

(Sorry, have to try at least... ;) )

I'm not saying anything unless I have a go-ahead from above and a working prototype in the bag. Funnily enough, I took a bunch of shots of the various buffers when rendering inside a space station, but we had to pull them because they're unreleased WIP. So it goes.
 
I'm not saying anything unless I have a go-ahead from above and a working prototype in the bag. Funnily enough, I took a bunch of shots of the various buffers when rendering inside a space station, but we had to pull them because they're unreleased WIP. So it goes.

So in tomorrows newsletter then! Check!! ;)
 
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1) You're my boss, that makes this harassment.

I foresee a vacancy for a Graphics Programmer opening up real soon ... best dust off my resume (my keyboard doesn't do the fancy e with an accent thing)

And I'm teasing, I'm sure Ben's job is very safe :)
 
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