In an article posted back on May 17th on ESPN titled "Inside the return of EA sports college football video game", a multiple paragraph portion is dedicated to a brand new toolset created for real time lighting (GIBS Global Illumination Based on Surfels). Excerpt below:
"As the team started construction, they began to look at innovative ways to solve problems and tech they could borrow from other EA games or create themselves. McLeod said they realized they needed a new lighting system in the game to create the scale they needed -- Global Illumination Based on Surfels, or what they commonly call GIBS. GIBS is a dynamic, real-time lighting system that helps create different atmospheres in the stadium for a noon game, a 3:30 game or a night game, including how light might refract off helmets.
With GIBS in place, the team created a Stadium Toolkit, which McLeod said allowed designers and developers to almost go brick by brick, section by section to recreate stadiums to make sure the color schemes were correct down to the individual railings, tunnels and walls. It almost, McLeod said, became like a virtual Lego set putting it all together.
While there were some pieces from NCAA Football 14 they could use, those stadiums and mascots were built on a different engine for a different console. Not much would translate, so they had to start from the beginning.
Building an empty stadium took about a week depending on the venue, with Syracuse's JMA Wireless Dome among the trickiest because it was indoors and cavernous, so lighting had to be set up a bit differently than other schools. McLeod called it "the perfect storm of stadiums."
From what has been shown in the videos so far, the lighting and shadows do not move or change throughout the entirety of the game. This is probably most striking in QBJ's video where LSU takes on Oregon in the Rose Bowl. That bowl game in particular is known for starting in the daytime and ending in a night sky. It baffles me EA would tout this new GIBS tool, they themselves referring to it as a "brand new real time lighting system" and then upon release we would be left with a game long static lighting environment. I realize some people don't care about this at all, it just seems odd to me, the lighting looks so great in so many of the videos, but having it not progress or change at all is jarring and immersion breaking imo.
"As the team started construction, they began to look at innovative ways to solve problems and tech they could borrow from other EA games or create themselves. McLeod said they realized they needed a new lighting system in the game to create the scale they needed -- Global Illumination Based on Surfels, or what they commonly call GIBS. GIBS is a dynamic, real-time lighting system that helps create different atmospheres in the stadium for a noon game, a 3:30 game or a night game, including how light might refract off helmets.
With GIBS in place, the team created a Stadium Toolkit, which McLeod said allowed designers and developers to almost go brick by brick, section by section to recreate stadiums to make sure the color schemes were correct down to the individual railings, tunnels and walls. It almost, McLeod said, became like a virtual Lego set putting it all together.
While there were some pieces from NCAA Football 14 they could use, those stadiums and mascots were built on a different engine for a different console. Not much would translate, so they had to start from the beginning.
Building an empty stadium took about a week depending on the venue, with Syracuse's JMA Wireless Dome among the trickiest because it was indoors and cavernous, so lighting had to be set up a bit differently than other schools. McLeod called it "the perfect storm of stadiums."
From what has been shown in the videos so far, the lighting and shadows do not move or change throughout the entirety of the game. This is probably most striking in QBJ's video where LSU takes on Oregon in the Rose Bowl. That bowl game in particular is known for starting in the daytime and ending in a night sky. It baffles me EA would tout this new GIBS tool, they themselves referring to it as a "brand new real time lighting system" and then upon release we would be left with a game long static lighting environment. I realize some people don't care about this at all, it just seems odd to me, the lighting looks so great in so many of the videos, but having it not progress or change at all is jarring and immersion breaking imo.
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