Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.11
A cube rendered with the correct winding order (a), and the same
cube rendered with the incorrect winding order (b).
Lights
A game without lighting looks very drab and dull, so most 3D games must imple-
ment some form of lighting. A few different types of lights are commonly used in
3D games; some lights globally affect the scene as a whole, whereas other lights
only affect the area around the light.
Ambient Light
Ambient light
is an uniform amount of light that is applied to every single object
inthescene.Theamountofambientlightmaybesetdifferentlyfordifferentlevels
in the game, depending on the time of day. A level taking place at night will have
a much darker and cooler ambient light than a level taking place during the day,
which will be brighter and warmer.
Because it provides an even amount of lighting, ambient light does not light dif-
ferent sides of objects differently. So think of ambient light as the light outside on
an overcast day when there is a base amount of light applied everywhere.
Figure
4.12(a)
shows such an overcast day in nature.
