Atmosphere in Warpers – Big Game Project

In order to create the sense of depth in the space levels of the game “MSSP”, a parallax effect is used. This way the planets and/or celestial bodies that are closer to the camera seem to move faster than the distant ones. The movements of planets and stars seem more natural and interesting compared to if they were to all move at the same speed.

The level set up for the blue/green theme of MSSP

However, the parallax effect was not enough to create a sense of depth within the space level. After analysing other space games like “Spaz” a decision was made to add an atmosphere layer to the level.

A screenshot of the game as played in the space level without the atmosphere.

A screenshot of the game as played in the space level with an atmosphere.

As you can see the atmosphere layer helped with tying all the celestial bodies and the  together. However, the group felt like another layer further away with a different color would further enhance the effect to desired results.

Now the whole space level has an coheisive tone of green with an accent of purple that really helps defining the depth as well as making the whole level come together.

The new  parallax layer set up in the Unreal 4 engine with the atmosphere layers.