Uncharted 4: Among Thieves

Most of Madagascar was lit by Ai-Fen Lo. She formed the base palette of deep warm bounce tones and light blue ambient hues with tinges of saturated reds to compliment the clay dirt and clear blue skies of Madagascar's environment. We joined to help out with Avery's Tower, one of the twelve in what would prove to be one of the largest levels in the game. Some of the biggest challenges was ensuring all of the sections worked on and its color palette of browns, deep warms, muted greens, and light blues would blend with the rest of the level, especially when connected exterior with interior assets.

Courtyard

Modeled by Jose Vega and textured by John Schmidt, the courtyard features large sections of environment that would collapsed during a destructible event, a pinhole roof, and a cutscene involving Drake, Sam, and Sully. The challenge of this scene was to ensure the lighting would blend well on large objects as well as work with the cinematics as a strong foundation. It was also important to ensure the runtime lights would script in and out of gameplay without noticeable changes.

Another challenge was managing multiple exposure levels for the camera as Drake would move under and over the stairs and deeper recesses of the courtyard. Balancing shadows and highlights in a way that's believable, deep, consistent, fast to keep with player twitch movement without the risk of too much over or under exposure as well as ensuring players don't feel dizzy doing so was a large part of making this level work.

The toughest part of all happened at the last minute when then Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells pointed out the crevice Drake sneaks in to get to this room didn't have enough light. We had to script a special runtime light to make that moment of "aha" before the player enters the room work. As a bonus, it gave Nathan Drake an added rim light which made his entrance and that moment more epic, a happy accident!

Hallway

A classic example of "shoebox" lighting, we were lucky this section was small and had a slight opening for us to make the most of bounce and give it a greater sense of depth. Oftentimes a pinhole time environment can be a lighter's dream for the sense of direction and drama it can bring. While it takes more polish to pull off when blending runtime objects with environment in this scenario, the visual reward is almost always worth it.

Secret Room

The fun part of this room was scripting the runtime light to come up when Drake would uncover the wall. It felt like a Zelda classic moment. The downside was not being able to much much bounce but instead use just enough direction ambience to keep the room from feeling too flat. It's in the darks and shadows where too much work can be involved in getting the level to look decent because we're often fighting different monitors and calibrations. Everyone loves their own TV settings but for Lighting on levels like these, it's the ultimate game of whack-a-mole.

Luckily by this time, Waylon Brinck had implemented a color grading system using a runtime generated waveform by mapping rgb values vertically and horizontally within the 0-1 range inside the Playstation 4's GPU in-game HUD . This allowed us to make adjustments to the color and brightness within most display limits. Using this new approach, we could color grade using LUTs like pros, saving us a ton of iteration time on bakes.

By comparison, a professional color grading tool like from Blackmagic for TV and film, the company could end up spending close to $10,000 per unit alongside complex desk and cable setups. The fact that we could do this in realtime and on the fly with a few lines of code was a huge win.

Tower Exterior

Blending the tower exterior with it's interior was the toughest part of this level, along with ensuring foliage from our section blended with Ai-Fen's. Also, there was a major post processing pop between our areas that required a new solution: create a base setting for the level, then add overrides per section. While it was a major pain because it required re-doing all the work that had been approved, it made blending different parts of this massive level, including the tower, a dream. Once Drake entered and exited the level, exposure pops and strange color shifts were gone.

Designed by Elisabetta Silli and scripted by Mark Borroughs, Modeled by Ruben Shah and materials by Brian Beppu. Originally this level was meant to be short. But after a prototype experiment with the torch and thanks to the support and ownership of the level by Elisabetta Silli and Mark Burroughs, it turned into a full-fledge adventure. It's one of the few times we got to help co-author lighting-driven gameplay. It almost didn't make it but glad it did. Passage had three types of lighting: torch, flare, and flashlight. Each had their own color palette and mood.

Flare Zone

"Stargate blue" was the codename used by John Sweeney who art directed this level. It was a fight to the bitter deep of color palettes. The signature key runtime light for this was either too blue, green, or turquoise. Somehow, we managed to find that right hue, but it took what felt like forever and there was a lot of debate to get to this point. But in the end, we were happy with it, and best of all, the values held up well across multiple monitors on different settings.

Flash Zone

The flashlight was a massive rework from the original game. The hard part was creating a gobo that felt like it came from a real light. We actually bought several flash lights of various types and brightness, took screenshots, and then reworked the mipped texture at the heart of it to get it right.

Even though this level uses an exclusive use of the flash light, it was implemented through the entire game. All the labor in creating the initial settings for this led to a hardcoded system that worked well enough for the rest of the team to make adjustments as needed whenever changes were called for it. But the trickiest part was making sure when Drake walked in close or away from a surface, that the light itself would look as close to the real thing as possible. We got about 80% close to what one would expect when compared to live reference but some tweaks were made for the sake of art and gameplay, which worked out for the better.

Torch Zone

The torch level was where the idea for gameplay started. Usually there's a source of light you bounce around in a level so players can see around no matter what. But this time we wanted to push the envelope. So in the initial cave test, all bounce was removed and we were left with a pitch black environment where we purposely made it impossible to see.

Then we measured the distance in meters from the torch to certain distance to find out how near can we pull the light before players would grow frustrated at darkness and what's the minimum distance we can introduce enemies before they would be seen while giving players enough time to react without feeling cheated. This boundary is what we would call the radius of suspense. Once we found this distance (somewhere around 24 meters before pitch black and 14 meters before enemies would be seen), we then had to figure out how to make the torch look good.

Thanks to the help of Lead Game Designer Kurt Margenau and Programmer Sandeep Shekar (check the spelling), the torch was able to sway with Drake's movements and still work well when he would roll on the floor. It was a lot of work to keep it along with all of Nate's dynamic movements. Special thanks to the particle team for making a very convincing and realistic flame. It all came together in the end. Before shipping, a lot of post tweaks had to be made for the fire's distance to the torch and from Drake's hand. In the end it paid off.

Bonus: some shots from the film starring Tom Holland look eerily similar to the torch level, coincidence?!?

Seriously, I swear they're using our patented Stargate blue. Right?!

Cave Exit

Blending the final section with the next level was a challenge. We had to work out a special rig with lighting artist Scott Greenway who was in charge of the cutscene area after the level's completion. It took a lot of tweaks and back and fourth but we managed to get it to work. Few folks know how hard it can be to blend sun and sky as well as color palette settings between levels from two artists. That's why it's so important to establish colors early on and set up a base setting across levels to reduce any dependency bottlenecks. But sometimes it can't be helped and in this case, it worked to our favor.

As an added bonus, there were some last minute requests to light the part with Drake trapped in a cage. While it was tough, it worked out. But there's a wonder if this was the inspiration for the start menu? We'll never know, but it's nice to think so.

Also known as Chapter 18: New Devon, the Sunken Ruins were a challenge to light. It was a massive level with a lot of collaboration involved to make it work. The biggest obstacles were getting foliage to blend in shadows without looking too flat in large areas and the underwater post processing. Both took a large chunk of the work due to the scope of it's usage in the level.

On a personal note, it was because of the enormous scope of this level we almost didn't make it. We started shifting our focus on tool development while lighting to pull it off. But the magnitude of programming and art work required to make it happen was a lot to handle. Because we took a risk in learning how to balance the two in equal measure, we made a lot of mistakes and certain team members paid a heavy price (sorry Khanh). While it was regrettable, it's also doubtful this level would've worked out the way it did without the collaboration of our incredible team alongside the ability to leverage pipeline upgrades alongside art polish.

Subsequent levels became easier to work on due to the growing pains of this experience and has become a staple in our workflow. The key is to take advantage of the 20 to 60 minute window one has to wait for bakes to complete. That's the opportune time to work on tools and scripts. It's also a great time to take a break and get some fresh air. Oftentimes, you need both.

Avery's Dining

Modeled by Santiago Gutierrez and textured by Malcolm Hee, was meant as a shoebox pinhole type scenario but materials were always changing and the shifting color palette for this scene turned it into an ever constant wrestling match of values. Ai-Fen Lo contributed to Avery's Dining area especially for extra polish due to cutscenes. It It was a challenge to keep up with but in the end, it worked out.

The biggest drawback was having to balance what looked good in-game versus cutscene. Scripting changes in runtime lights and post processing wasn't going to make it work. We had to make sure all angles, values, and colors held up well enough in any angle or distance the camera was able to go. This was especially the case with all the objects, props, and cutlery in the scene. It was a lot of work but it paid off.

Avery's Mansion

Modeled by Brian Recktenwald and Joshua Piszezeck with Rogelio Olguin assisting in the opening entrance kitchen area, Avery's Mansion came together almost literally at the last minute. Materials and textures by Alice Gionchetta and Rogelio saved the day. It was a superheroic effort by the team and a daring feat of acrobatics.

Fun fact, this level was the last one to be touched. One photon trapped under a floor of this mansion that had to be hand painted away in Photoshop at 16bits with HDR range info and manually tweaked on instinct was all that stood in the way of shipping this project. Hours before the director had to fly out of town to hand over the gold disc we sat in front of the screen praying the one or two chances we had left to make sure the game was error and bug free would work. It was fixed, the game delivered, and the rest is history.

This level came together almost overnight.

The Ave Cave

To be clear, "Ave Cave" was not its official level name, but it's fun to call it that, so we're rolling with it. That's what it should've been but we never had a say until now. Anyways, most of the work in this level came from massive exposure tweaks and underwater post. It was tough to blend interior with exterior values without dizzying the player. A lot of the material and modeling work came together at the last minute, especially with the foliate but it came together in the end thanks to the team.

Death Gate

Modeled by Artem Britiztkiy and textured by Max Golosiy, the Sunken gate area nicknamed "death gate" featured skeletons, a massive wall, and lot of foliage. Originally it was supposed to be more vibrant and alive but then a dispute about direction erupted with Artem suggesting less color and more contrast. Bruce Straley was our tie breaker in Artem's favor. It felt terrible to lose the argument. But while it wasn't agreeable, in hindsight, it was the right decision. Most of the level had a lot of color and this was a moment that deserved to be lifeless, especially before the big reveal and given all the remains in the area.

Lesson learned: we're not always right. Other team members have great ideas too.

Inner Ruins

Modeled by Khanh Nguyen and Artem Brizitskiy, textured by Khanh, the inner ruins was combat designed by none other than Zeid Rieke, the original designer for Call of Duty. One can actually say there's a piece of COD in this part of the map. Not knowing who he was, I had massive flashback to the Black Ops days when he asked to fix very specific areas of lighting where the scope Drake's gun would be able to pick out enemies from afar yet contrast them well in different lighting/shading conditions. The feeling was so eerie, as we were collaborating on this section of the game, it somehow felt like we were working together on COD.

Given the limited time available, there was little chance to talk to Zeid. It was assumed he was a new hire because we hadn't known or seen him around before during The Last of Us. Also, because he was mostly quiet and deeply focused, there was an assumption he was new to games, where one would expect combat designers to be more ... combative?

There was a moment while sitting down in front of the PC during a break, where it was considered to go talk to him, open up and say "hey man, that stuff you asked me to do got done but, you know, it's crazy, as we were testing it, the gameplay, rhythm, and timing along with the way it connected with the lighting and how we had to script carefully the brightness of NPC's is so much like Call of Duty, it just seems like you're a natural for that genre, have you thought about applying to Infinity Ward or Treyarch? It seems like you'd be a perfect fit!"

Deep down it seemed like a silly idea since we didn't know Zeid well enough to speak like that and we didn't have much time to chat due to our tight schedule. But a few years later during our Sabbatical, we thought about that remark and figured maybe we should reach out and see what he's up to and perhaps finally say it if he's at some other company. Then his name showed up on Wikipedia ... and then we found out he got promoted to lead ... at Infinity Ward ... and there was nothing left to say except:

"Dang."
True story.

Jeep Entrance

Modeled by Johnny Chen and textured by Max Gologsiy, the jeep entrance was fun but difficult due to the blend between our section and the one lit by Steve Cummings. Once you come up in the elevator, the post processing and runtime lights shift as it rises. It turned out Steve had very different ways of setting values and we didn't really think to coordinate until the last minute. We only had a day yet the shift was so drastic, it would have to take at least a week. But Sony was waiting and we had to ship.

By some crazy feat of scripting acrobatics and some late night insanity, somehow we managed. The solution was to break the transition into stages: a main base setting shared by both levels, a transition setting for the sun, and then a final for the fog and post.

We took advantage of a few trick moments such as cutting between our settings using the cinematic camera to hide the transition. Another was to fade the fog for a whole 120 seconds so the player wouldn't notice. Lastly, some of the settings like glows would lerp as the player would rise up. The rest was taking Steve's settings as a base and re-working a few of ours to match. It was a lot of labor but it paid off.

Once a while it's nice when a fan appreciates the end result. Username potatohead made a wallpaper for their computer while screen-grabbing a moment in this level "not even taken with photo mode. I'm that damn good :)" Yes you are, potatohead, yes you are.

River Approach

Modeled by Artem Brizitskiy and textured by Max Gologsiy, the river approach (which was not it's real name but what we're nicknaming) was fun. Part of the challenge was getting plants to bounce color properly. We had a lot of back and forth between the bounce brightness of materials versus lights. Also, getting subsurface scattering with bounce lights under the canopy of trees and water proved challenging as well as the constant tweaks to exposure while rock climbing. But it all worked out.

Tews Interior

Modeled by Khanh Nguyen and Santiago Gutierrez, texture by Khanh and Malcolm Hee, Tews interior can be broken down into three sections. The first was the main entrance, the second was the dining area, and the third was a secondary hideout. The team did a phenomenal job on modeling and texturing where lighting worked out well almost on the first try and a lot of iteration was about adjusting to Details as they were added. But the underwater transition was tough because there were three types, a murky, clear, and deep blue.

The variation of water in this level led to the invention of a a base underwater setting along with variations for each section that changed color, fog, and post to make it appear different with the fewest attributes possible (there was still a lot). As time cut short, this approach ended up being used throughout the game. Special thanks to Eben Cook and Elaine Kubrick from the FX team in taking it to the next level, it wouldn't have worked out as well without them.