Here’s a thread for my graphics experiments with GSB 2.0.
Just fiddling, but happy with very early test stuff for a single mornings work 
positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2013/0 … y-day-off/
Looks quite nice. Just make sure to make this height map business optional. Otherwise it may become too hard for modders to create their own ship hulls. I personally have no idea how to create a height map with a 2d image program (like Photoshop). I suspect it may not be possible.
i guess… 3D modelling, here i come!
Yeah that’s a good point. It shouldn’t be too hard. In fact my little test case already has it as optional, so I can test the game with just one ship implemented 
Never fret modders ,
I have used crazy bump for creating decent normal maps based on 2-d textures, a free 30-day trial exists, so you can just use it as a ‘final pass’ for when you have all of your sprites completed/ near completion.I have also read that there are auto-normal mapping plugins for Photoshop, or gimp. If you are a paint.net user, Idk how it works, if it has plugins etc.
*EDIT
I also noticed that turrets did not get a shading pass and look, imho quite ugly, would it be possible to overlay the ships normal on top of the turrets. Another potential solutions is just giving the turrets their own normal maps, but I have no idea how the shading would interact between the two.
Given the thread title, I think it’s safe to assume that GSB2.0 is coming. What’s more, given the higher quality of the sprite, i’m going to go ahead and call it 3D. I’m probably all wrong, but…
I love the radiation effect against the heavily shadowed hulls. It looks profoundly unhealthy. 
+1, Looks great! But also looks harder to give the same effect to turrets, though
I won’t get tedious by pointing out what I’ve done here, but interested in general opinions. The effects need toning down and tweaking, but this marks a milestone where some stuff I long wanted to get done now works…
General Opinion - Looking Awesome, somewhat too dark, but Awesome none the less.
It will be interesting to see if the Turrets get the same treatment with the bump mapping or some other blending effect. (Currently they look a little out of place)
Now correct me if I am wrong, but are those beams lighting up the hull ?!?! o.O
I have to share a dissenting opinion. While I think that the overall shadowing effect that cliffski is aiming for is a cool one, the hulls in the latest screenshot are too dark; dark enough to be aggravating even on a S-IPS monitor that has absolutely no trouble with color fidelity or high dynamic range. 
I found the hull shadowing in the 2nd screenshot (the pic with the radiation damage) to be so shadowed as to be very unattractive to my eye. The hulls in this 3rd screenshot seem to have been marginally lightened since then, but…the ultra-high contrast from the neon-bright red background makes this super-shadow effect even less pleasant; the Tribe ships appear as if they’re almost wholly drained of color, which I don’t enjoy at all. I’m hopeful that the presently-heavy shadowing will soon be diluted somewhat - it is interesting, yes, but let’s not over-spice the soup. 
I would love that. Right now, the legacy GSB turret sprites detract from the shadowed hulls. If the entire ship (hull + turrets) exhibited roughly the same overall luminance, it would be mighty sweet. Just make sure that the turrets’ coloration are a wee bit brighter than the hull, though.
It’s good to see the results of some very early sprite/ambiance experiments for GSB2 - thanks for sharing these with us, cliffski.
Yeah the turrets are just not done at all right now. i can basically turn the ambient and directional lighting up and down on a per-mission basis (or even let the player adjust it mid battle) so hopefully everyone will be happy
Yeah the lasers light up the hull. Right now even the repair bot welding beams light up the hull
Oh and all of this will not be until next year. It’s a total revamp planned, but so far I am experimenting with the existing game rather than starting from scratch. A lot of improvements are planned, and I’ll go into more detail when I’m working on it full-time.
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[size=125]Public Service Notice to everyone:[/size]
As for keeping the metaphoric “suggestion box” full, this thread about Cliff’s lighting experiment for GSB2 sprites is not the best place for doing that. We already have a purpose-built suggestion box right here. I encourage everyone to make full use of it - that will keep other threads on-topic, while also centralizing the sequel suggestions for cliffski’s ease of use when the time comes.
Please keep this thread on topic regarding the GSB2 sprite-lighting experiment. Thanks, folks.
I haven’t transferred any more ships to the new lighting system, but other stuff is in the works. You probably can’t tell from this static shot though 
I’m seeing a few things that pop out as “different” but given that all are related to lighting, I’m going to guess they’re related to it 
either way; looks amazing!
it looks better but i just can’t put my finger on it
So I’ve been raising a newborn with my wife for a couple months and just saw… THIS.
Do I understand some of these features are what we are seeing here…?
- “Faux-3D” using heightmap shaders
- Bloom effects (even background feathering over sprites)
- Light sourced (or at least well simulated light sourced) beams/bolts
This look fantastic! I hope you are pleased with your work, Cliffski!