Summer is coming... (update)

[Shadowrunner]

...and not only beer gardens are putting their lights back on.
In ZERO too, it is now bright as day (or, occasionally dark as night), thanks to our very own God-of-GL, Master of Lights and Overlord-of-OpenGL: Helios  . Spending the past weeks with attempts to implement lighting and  a Day-/Night cycle into the ZERO-world and finally succeeding  while cursing occasionally (read: it wasn't exactly safe for minors).

obscured worldmap

Light on

Technically spoken, this is done using two methods:
First,  the map is shaded using a  command implemented in OpenGL, by which one is able to set strength and color of global light. Secondly, other sources of light are spawned using multi texturing. With this method, multiple textures are blended into one, creating beautiful effects e.g. flickering torches or searchlights. These methods will enable us to increase the atmosphere in ZERO further and offer you a better playing experience.
On this occasion, we would like to thank Helios again. You may now buy him a quantity not less than one of his favorite beverage.

Two funny fails during the implementation.

Zero in hell

blue light fail

The lights of  this news ain't out now, because Helios is already planning further optimizations like running multi texturing via different texture units of the graphics card. By using this method, a better performance can be achieved with ZERO, which will come in handy for the planned features.

Unfortunately many members of ZERO are currently busy working or studying (I damn thee, exams!)  therefore are unable to commit fully to the development of ZERO. Nevertheless, we are trying to finish the Demo as soon as posible and maybe cast a ray of light into the dark world of ZERO.

Greatings

the Zero-Projekt Team

Watch this screencapture to see the lighting while movement

• Zero lighting code at work

Edit: added screencapture