Asbjorn Lystrup's Sticky Slime Simulation Gets Better Lighting

Game Developer and Digital Artist Asbjørn Lystrup continues working on his upcoming 2D physics sandbox game with survival/RPG elements, being developed in collaboration with Marcus V., offering another behind-the-scenes peek at the project.

Previously, the creator shared a series of awe-inspiring demos, showcasing a sticky and gooey slime simulation created for the game. To set up the sim, Asbjørn utilized the team's custom-built game engine, which, according to one of the developer's previous tweets, utilizes Vulkan and DX11 and was written in C++.

Continuing the series, Asbjørn recently presented the slime sim enhanced with a brand-new lighting system. Said system is based on Radiance Cascades, a new approach to calculating global illumination introduced recently by Alexander Sannikov, a Senior Programmer at Grinding Gear Games, the developer behind Path of Exile.

Unveiled back in November 2023, the Radiance Cascades method allows for effectively storing and calculating a radiance field by decomposing it into multiple ranges and storing them separately.

Based on the idea that "in order to resolve radiance emitted by an object, one needs to have higher linear resolution next to it and higher angular resolution farther away from it", the approach removes the rays as the primary constraint for calculating global illumination, resulting in natural-looking, quickly processed lighting that works effectively within memory limitations.

Asbjørn was amongst the first adopters of Radiance Cascades, leveraging the approach to handle lighting in the aforementioned sandbox. Attached below are some of the earlier showcases shared by the developer, you can check out more by clicking this link:

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