Replicating Mirror's Edge Look

Berserker44

Hello everyone I am trying to replicate a specific look from a game called mirror's edge (DLC). I make a scene in unity using simple shapes like blocks. it looks very simple but at the same time elegant and beautiful.

here is a tutorial that put me on to a really good start:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/beast-lightmapping-mirrors-edge.68061/

I am currently trying to bake the lighting style for performance. however i am having a difficult time replicating this scene in unity.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on achieving this look within unity?

MikeF

If you're working with lightmaps i'd start by following the bake settings outlined in that thread.
Next i'd start playing with your ambient lighting in the render settings (after baking though as this will make more sense to adjust once you have shadows in there)

if you're wanting the post FX i'd throw down a very light bloom image effect.

For your shaders use self-illumination with some glow (be sure to have an alpha channel even if its just full white or the color wont bounce properly during the lightmap bake)

For the light setup you should be able to pull it off with one directional light. If you are using color in your ambient light i'd match the directional light to that value aswell

Post what you've got if you have any more questions, i've replicated this style a few times in unity so i'd be glad to help

ngw

Light is simple : strong blue ambient & single white directional light.

Your shaders don't need any self-illumination : All the brightness comes from a really (over) bright directional light & plenty of global illumination bounces.

Put white surfaces next to highly saturated ones so you can see the global-illumination colour bouncing.

Make sure your colour space is linear (not gamma), and your camera is ticked as HDR.

post fx should be a suitable tonemapper / colour correction combo & plenty of bloom.

Berserker44

Thank you so much MikeF and Ngw for your help! Yes im trying to implement everything that I can see is happening in the examples. I was able to achieve something in terms of baking. I will experiment more with the suggestions you recommended. Thank You!

here is what I am working with right now. I was able to bake the the blocks but I still haven't achieved the look obviously. Also this is not final programming I am still implementing features like a spline system, character movement, and items/obstacles ect.
Link:
http://charleslcox.com/New%20folder.html

Also to be specific I am also trying to target this towards mobile devices. I want this to a endless runner type game. SO obviously I will not be able to achieve the exact qaulity of a pc/next gen game but i am generally trying to replicate the simpler concepts like the lighting and colors. there are a few post effects for mobile devices that ive checked into but some of them have heavy impact on framerate/performance.

ngw

Amplify Color is nice for color LUTs on mobile. You could use that for pulling some saturation into the ambient lit parts.

Unity fastbloom should be ok on mobile.

That effect of the bridge building itself is nice.

How mobile are you going, can you afford dynamic shadows?

Charles Cox

Thanks again NGW I finally had some time to try some of your recommendations. Amplify is an awesome Asset! Here is a screenshot of a some of the bakes.



I plan on targeting as many mobile devices as i can. The current version I have now runs very well on my old iPod touch. I plan on faking shadows from the moving blocks with the shadow projector asset and baking anything static.

ngw

Nice work, you've got really close to the look now.