Shaders! Shaders! Shaders!

As the new Semester began, it was time to make a choice about which group to move forward with.  After meeting up with my group members from Studio 12, we all decided to go our separate ways and pursue other groups for our GDW projects. RIP Tag Der Winde, hello Adventures of Merlin.  Over the past week, we learned about shaders and how large of a role they will play in the creation of our games.

Shaders are computer programs that are executed in the Graphics Processing Unit of a computer that apply shading to different surfaces of objects.  In the past, shading was limited to doing different levels of light and dark on any given object.  Thanks to the advances of technology however, shaders can now be used to add different special effects and postprocessing effects on the objects being drawn on the screen.

For this assignment, we were asked to take a few screen shots of effects we hope to achieve with the use of shaders.  Shown above is a screenshot of how Adventures of Merlin currently looks.  Many of the textures look flat and boring and nothing is really eye catching on the screen.

As seen above, I have added a new texture to the right side of the image.  Using shaders, I would try to add a Cel Shading look to the game, similar to the look of hit games like Borderlands and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.  Hopefully throughout the semester I will learn how to incorporate this effect into our game.

The second effect I am really interested in adding in the game would only appear when the player is hit by a larger boss.  The effect would cause the screen to become temporarily blurred to simulate taking a direct hit to the head.  This effect is used in many games and I enjoy the realism that it adds.

 

My third and final shading effect that I applied to the scene, will be used when the character enters a special power-up mode.  During this time, the character will deal bonus damage with his spells, as well as gaining more health to their total amount.  The effect applied would cause many of the colours on Merlin to become enhanced and almost neon like, to signify that Merlin has gained extra powers.

I really hope that these shader effects can be added to the game, as they would add a lot of different elements that could enhance the players experience while playing Adventures of Merlin.  I am quite excited to learn more about shaders as they open up a whole new world of opportunities for adding elements to our game.