The Mana World Forums

I am not sure of the exact details due to my weakness in programming, but it seems as though creating an engine that automatically lights the anything in game with the southwest to northeast light source would be worth while. Then creating items/spritesets would be a more simple job in that you would not need to create the shading effect, because the light engine would do all the lighting on the fly. Is this a possible option? or am I shooting at the stars on this one?

yes, you are shooting at the stars.

To shade an object correctly you need to know its three dimensional shape. Determining this based on a two dimensional image is impossible.

Of course we could create a 3d model for every item in the game, but then we would have a 3d engine and no 2d sprite-based game.

The shading is the most important part in pixel art. Let me give you an example. What is this?


It's a sphere!


...no... wait... it's a spike pointing at the spectator!


...wait... i was wrong again... it is a plate!


nah, just kidding. It is... no idea what this is supposed to be:


Do you see now why you can't do the shading automatically?

This makes plenty of sense. I have been playing 3d games too long i just kinda forgot that this is indeed a 2d game

I was hoping that there was something (engine) that could be created to help the pixel artist.

Thank you for the clear explanation.