Here's the deal. I'm doing an investigation into the connections between in game lighting and the sense of 'presence' and immersion felt in games, and I have created a couple of small test maps for this purpose. They are very small with no enemies or puzzles, but what I'd like you lovely volunteers to do is explore them and make notes on the lighting in each. They are both essentially the same map but both have different lighting. The first map 'Sewerbase1a' has been created to have realistic and immersive lighting, and in the second 'Sewerbase1b' I have tried to take out some of the lighting elements that were in the first. I'd like you to play them both and then answer the little questionnaire that I have set out below. This is for my final year university work so any help would be greatly appreciated. Just PM me with your email address and I will send the maps as a zipped attachment. You can fill out the questionnaire here, or copy+paste it into a word document and mail it back if you'd prefer!
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http://www.mediafire.com/?dtomfuykm2w
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These maps are for HL2 EPISODE 2. Please put the maps into :
[username\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\maps]
No other custom content is included or required.
Thanks in advance guys!
Any questions, post them or PM me.
Some screenshots.
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Questionnaire:
1: Please rate the realism of the lighting in version 1a from 1-5, 5 being the highest.
2: Please rate the realism of the lighting in version 1b from 1-5, 5 being the highest.
3: Map 1a had a green tint to the lighting in many areas to give a grimier, more sewer like feel. Do you think this made a difference to the sense of immersion and make you feel more like you were there?
4: Please rate the important of colour tinted lighting in setting a the mood of an area in a map, from 1-5, 5 being the highest.
5: Map version 1a had sharper shadows created by lower lightmaps. Did you notice these shadows, and do you think they enhanced the feeling of presence and immersion in the map?
6: The lighting in some areas of map version 1b was deliberately over-saturated. Do you think it made a difference to the sense of realism and immersion?
7: Please rate the importance of having correctly saturated lighting levels in a map in creating realism and immersion, from 1-5, 5 being the highest.
8: Please rate the importance of lighting in creating an immersive and believable 3D game, from 1-5, 5 being the highest.
9: How important do you having correctly angled shadows from the environmental light (sun) are in creating realism? Please rate from 1-5, 5 being the highest.
10: What do you think the most important factor is in creating realistic and immersive lighting in a map overall?
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