Codename "FTL" - A Sci-fi Epic in Unity

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Hello everyone, I am working on the project codenamed “FTL” at Arkaen, and it is essentially a sci-fi/space universe which is being brought to life through an upcoming video series (trying to publish episode 1 very soon!) and a playable game. A rather “unorthodox” sort of game which merges elements of 4X grand strategy, RPG and flight sim mechanics to tell a strange tale that I think people will really enjoy.

I will post updates on it here and on other social media and forums for those who are interested in it.

Basic Overview:
The story begins in the year 2233, and mankind has widely colonized (and commercialized) the solar system. But this is neither a dystopian horror story, nor an optimistic “Trek” … things aren’t that simple. It’s a story universe containing both wonders and horrors: incredible opportunities and triumphs, as well as dark and twisted possibilities we never before considered. The Earth is governed by a loose confederation of squabbling nations, the remnants of what was once the U.N., now known as the “United Federation of Nations” or “UFN”. The government is largely ineffectual, unable to actually govern and control space, regulate commerce and technology or even provide security and law enforcement. As a result, many people are forced to either join various groups and factions for protection, or seek refuge as an employee of one of the megacorporations that dominates inter-system commerce. The full details of this will soon be revealed in the upcoming video we are working on …

I’ve been working on a sequence which is going to be part of the “episode 1” video, as well as a title/menu sequence to tantalize players and give a glimpse of what is ahead of them to experience. I’m having some disheartening issues with it though lol … check out the preview clip I recorded last night:

It looks stunning on my 4K gaming monitors or on my S22 Ultra (Android phone), but on my 4K TV and other devices it’s REALLY dark … too dark to make out what is happening. And other viewers have also had that issue. Anyone have any recommendations for this screen/brightness debacle? Having a state of realistic darkness in space was an important aspect for the visuals, and it looks great in real-time 3D, but something more must be done to make scenes suitable for video. I’m already adding more dynamic lighting and detail to the scene to help a bit, but I am curious if I should just leave it alone and brighten up the video itself, or if I should adjust my monitors and recalibrate and change the actual lighting in the game?!

Also, I will warmly receive any suggestions, ideas, etc … whether it’s a cool random sci-fi story or plot twist idea or recommendations on visuals, content, etc!

This began as a tiny project for training AI models as part of Arkaen’s AI ToolKit, and it started to get fun and expand … so, I finally decided to bring my old sci-fi story world to life and make this into a real project of its own that folks can see and experience

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It’s certainly a very atmospheric start - I can echo the issue that certain bits are too dark, but unfortunately I don’t have any tips to share on improving the lighting while effectively keeping the blackness of space. Maybe a cockpit light in the fightercraft, and/or some more external lights on the freighter? Also, something about the scale in that scene bugged me - for some reason, the hanger “feels” like it should be small… My first guess is that it’s related to the textures, but it could easily just be me.

The music feels like it adds quite nicely to the mood, slow and somber with a good mix of orchestral and electronic sounds to make it feel like good sci-fi (in my completely biased opinion as a sci-fi composer). Other than being good for a menu sequence, some sort of opening monologue could go really nicely over this track.

I’m interested to hear more about the story you have planned - I’ll try and keep an eye out for updates! Also very curious to see how the AI Bootcamp idea fits in with the project, and how it pans out in practise. Cool stuff :slight_smile:

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it looks really nice, and think the easiest thing is to add a ’ brightness ', and perhaps also ’ contrast ’ slider, and then let people make sure they could play the stuff . . . :hushed: :smile:

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When I turn on HDR on my monitor, then the brightness inside bootcamp is good, but outside in open space it still looks too dark, which probably is physical correct to reality, but this is a game and should be pleasant for the eyes. I think you should create your game with HDR turned off and calibrate monitor settings. I’m still learning and not sure if is possible, but at some point of the development you can include HDR switch to game settings menu.
P.S. Just saw in Unity manual about High Dynamic Range (HDR) Output, maybe it’s something that will help you.

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Have you tried adding a post processing colour grading? That’s probably the best way to solve for video:

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.postprocessing@2.0/manual/Color-Grading.html

Not sure how this works with HDRP, but they must have some kind of colour grading for HDRP.

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I forgot to come back and post a video with enhanced lighting:

I had to move and had to take some time off, so that is a bit outdated, but I’ve been working on some new stuff and will make a new video soon :slight_smile: