I would like to introduce the tool I am currently running a pretty successful Kickstarter campaign for: Sprite DLight on Kickstarter
The project reached its funding goal within 17 hours and is now approaching the second stretch goal: a Mac version.
Stretch goal #1 is already reached: A dynamic lighting preview window.
The basic purpose of Sprite DLight is the generation of normal maps from 2D sprites in one click, which allows for quick and atmospheric dynamic lighting effects in 2D games:
Thank you. @angrypenguin : I has simply been to much effort to do this by hand, respectively, the quality of automated approaches via plugins and common normal map generators has been poor.
The quality of Sprite DLight’s normal maps certainly depends on the input images, but I am also working on a way to provide an easy method for manual adjustments to the generated normal maps. (see stretch goal #4)
You won’t need a Unity plugin for this! The normal maps can just be dropped into the Unity editor, together with the sprites.
The release of the tool is planned for Spring 2015.
Thanks a lot for backing!
The beta-start is planned for mid-December, I am pretty busy with the Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight campaigns at this time, even though I can’t wait to concentrate on the tool itself again.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
There is a new feature: an animated dynamic lighting preview for sprite sheets.
Click the image for the full update, including a video clip showing the new feature!
@ JohnnyA: It is different.
Sprite Lamp combines 2-5 hand painted lighting profiles to a normal map.
Sprite DLight calculates a normal map, based on a sprite.
Regarding your second question: There are some stretch goals for Sprite DLight on the project page, right below the infograph, including a video. Stretch goal #4 could be interesting for you, as it provides a way to generate lightmaps from a normal map, which can be manually modified and serve as multiple input maps for a new normal map (this could be seen as the inversion of what Sprite Lamp does).
What kind of “better demos” are you thinking of? Could you elaborate on this?
Normal map created by the GIMP plugin (same as PS plugin)
Normal map created by a common normal map generator with the original sprite used as height map, followed by shape enhancement
Normal map created by Sprite DLight in one click
is the best result you can achieve with current automatic normal map generators combined with clever techniques, although the result is still pretty poor, it’s more of a bevel effect, which is randomly concave or convex, particularly at the edges of the shape.
I thought I’d make 2 comments here. One, I love the work being done on 2d. I saw sprite lamp and now this and it makes me realize (though I already new) that 2d is just not going to die. It doesn’t matter what comes out, but in some way or other 2d is going to be along for the ride of modernizing games.
And…I wanted to explain(from my point of view) why Sprite DLight works so much better than the random normal-map creators like crazybump for example. See, with normal textures, light is raised up, and dark is lowered(in general). With sprites on the other hand, not only can you be working with much smaller sizes(which don’t work well in other programs because they depend on detail to create curvature), but sprites need to be fully beveled upwards, some spots more than others, without having parts dip downwards(normals). Sprite DLight appears to be taking into account these details, taking into account not only brightness levels but color changes/contrasts as well, and isn’t doing all of the anti-aliasing and smoothing that other programs do, which would ruin those low level pixels in sprites.
