TheSpindler said:
Doesn't X have dynamic weather and day and night cycle as well? How much of this are we actually expecting in the base game anyway? And will the final game's environments be so bland and featureless? |
No. The key word here is "dynamic system" what you see in most games including X is referred to as "weather pattern" and "baked lighting solution". The difference here is that the dynamic system is heavy in the resources, it requires its own calculations to measure objects and distance. The light effect is not part of the art / textures, it is a standalone thing. You can see the sun gradually moving while the lighting of the world changing in real time.
So is the weather system. It is not a pattern. A dynamic weather system means the rain dynamically and gradually changing from heavy to soft, while interacting real-time with the other world elements like the wind direction, the look of the textures and so on. Final Fantasy XV Is a clear example to understand those systems better.
The backed lighting system like in X is much less ambitious but it is also not demanding. The day and night "cycle" is 3 different kinds of "world paint" day paint, dusk paint and night paint. The shift between the three happens without any interaction with the world elements, and it doesn't happen gradually, the time of day remains static untill the change happens.