Mezzanine Stairs

I recently added support for blend modes to full-screen tinting in World’s End. This was on my nice-to-have list, since it’s rarely used—once in all of the first chapter, and later during explosions. Blend modes are supported by the graphics framework we’re using, but I had to undo some over-optimizations I previously mentioned. Now that it’s working, I started thinking about making further use of the effect.

We were already using some full-screen tinting, but not using blend modes due to performance concerns with CPU-based rendering in Flash. Without blend modes, the tint layer is just a semi-opaque color that creates a washed out look that’s appropriate for the smoky haze in Tevoran’s hideout, but less than ideal when using a bluish tint to represent nighttime.

So, I started making more use of tinting, like adding a blue tint to the Tierva Slum during the first battles since they take place at night, and applying slightly more tint after each to suggest the passage of time. This was an easy way to add some visual variety to the game, but I started noticing performance issues on my lower-end graphics card.

I was using the “add” blend mode to make Tierva Station look like the near-dusk golden hour in the image above, but since there’s no way to fade to black by adding color (brightening), we were essentially having to tint the whole screen twice when fading in and out of scenes. Fortunately, I had code in place to pre-tint all graphics when creating spritesheets that I ironically considered over-optimization and stopped using.

This approach has a side benefit of tinting everything without affecting the color of outlines applied to units and obstacles when they’re selectable (white) or being selected (pulsating red). I had to do some reconfiguration to stop Tevoran from bringing the yellow haze with him from the hideout when he goes shopping, but otherwise this has been a minor effort considering how wide-ranging the improvement is.

Like, Share and Subscribe

Our link spamming operation continues!

Add World’s End to your wishlist on Steam, watch the World’s End trailer on YouTube (and elsewhere) and share with your friends!