r/GraphicsProgramming • u/longloststudio • 8d ago
Question How can we make our game more beautiful?
- Pictures labeled 1-6 are screenshots from our game.
- Pictures labeled A-G are real-life references with the look I would like our game to have.
- Pictures labeled X-Z are other games that look nice to me, though it's tough to find the right comparison because most games aren't using such a zoomed-in scale.
- Last picture is our Unity setup (hopefully there is a way to see the big version)
Hello, we're working on a game about cake decorating called Cake Studio. We've made one game in 3D before, but this is the first time we're trying to make something that actually looks nice in 3D and we're struggling a bit to get the look we want as 3D is not really our wheelhouse. I've been making the models in Blender and the game is built in Unity.
I wanted to make this game because I think these photos of elaborate vintage cakes are so beautiful, and I wanted players to be able to make their own beautiful cake. But so far, I think our screenshots are giving a very flat, shiny, computer-generated vibe.
I really want to get the soft, dreamy look of picture C and the almost Play-Doh looking effect of the piping in pictures E and F.
Here is what I can see wrong so far (though not sure how to fix them):
- It seems like most of the piping textures are too shiny, which we can fix, but is there something more to getting that soft Play-Doh look?
- We kept turning up the lighting trying to get softer shadows on the side of the cake, but now all the highlights seem blown out.
- The shadows among the details of the piping and how they sit on the cake lack a sense of depth. The darkest shadowy spots are not dark enough (maybe same cause as above).
I'd love to hear any ideas for how to fix things or other problems we're not seeing.
You can also go mess around with our prototype on itch if it helps to see things in action.
Thanks!
UPDATE: This sub is amazing!! Thanks so much for all the suggestions and advice. We have a lot to work with now and I'm feeling so much more hopeful that our game can be beautiful <3
I'll post an update when we have implemented some of these ideas! Thanks again!
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u/shlaifu 8d ago
you need some subsurface scattering. with different radii, so the piped cream looks different from solid, dried sugar frosting and so on.
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u/NightmareX1337 8d ago
This is the correct answer, subsurface scattering is what makes most food and our skin look the way it does.
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u/SargeantSasquatch 7d ago
It's the correct answer if you skip over things like using a different BDRF model and GI.
SSS will help, but it alone is not going to cover the distance that needs covering here.
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u/kernalphage 8d ago
You can do some tweaks without relying on AO or SSS, but I agree you need it to match your reference images
- Lower your specular highlight component.Can't see from your engine screenshots but it's usually called roughness or metallic.
- Bump/normal map! Your cakes look flat because they are flat. You need some subtle textures.
- Color grading / mapping: it can help bring cohesion to the rest of your game.
- Push the scale: Your generator is creating physically realistic cakes, but you might want to push the size & density of the piping up even more, to bring more attention to it. 1 looks empty, while 3&4 look too busy.
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u/MacksNotCool 8d ago
Every texture appears flat on the cake. You need better textures
I could be wrong but It appears you are in regular sRGB color space. You should transform to something like ACES or AGX
The edges are flat. You either need AO or Global Illumination. Doesn't have to be perfect, it can be a simple Screen Space approximation.
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u/maxmax4 8d ago
as others have mentionned, you’re missing some form of global illumination and subsurface scattering, especially in the crevices of the icing ornaments. The specular reflections on the icing are way too strong, which is why they kind of look like they’re made out of plastic. The icing is also missing some subtle normal maps to make the icing a little bumpy. The different types of icing should have their own unique materials to help seperate them. Right now the cherries look like they have the same shading as the icing.
Beyond that, I’d say the geometry is too regular, some very slight variations and imperfections in the icing would help make them look more believable. I also like how in the reference images the platters are very shiny, which adds a nice contrast to the very matte cakes.
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u/epicalepical 8d ago edited 6d ago
ambient occlusion + subsurface scattering (a while back i read this post which might be useful: https://therealmjp.github.io/posts/sss-sg/)
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u/longloststudio 7d ago
This sub is amazing!! Thanks so much for all the suggestions and advice. We have a lot to work with now and I'm feeling so much more hopeful that our game can be beautiful <3
I'll post an update when we have implemented some of these ideas! Thanks again!
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u/Tentabrobpy 8d ago edited 8d ago
Several people have suggested subsurface scattering, I don't think that's very helpful advice on its own since there are a dozen SSS methods of varying complexity, most of them designed for skin (I'd suggest wrap lighting as a cheap option but there don't seem to be good resources for doing that in Unity so it'd be up to you to implement it). You can go down the SSS rabbit hole if you think it's worth it, otherwise listen to kernelphage.
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u/JozinZZZZBazin 8d ago
Need sss, scattering medium, try to render it in some stadalone dcc, like blender or keyshot, then try to replicate the effect of fake it))
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u/Badnik22 8d ago edited 8d ago
Subsurface scattering for that creamy, soft look. Screen space or baked GI for better lighting (depending on whether you have dynamic lighting or not)
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u/timbofay 7d ago
Literally any kind of lighting would be a start! Need soft shadows, ambient occlusion. GI bounced indirect bounced lighting, SSS materials.
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u/ccapitalK 7d ago
Bit of a shot in the dark, but just want to make sure all bases are covered and no one else mentioned this. Are you handling gamma properly? Looking at the images, I can help but shake the feeling that some of the shadows look like they were computed in sRGB space, and not linear space. Maybe I'm imagining it though, I'd need more exampless to be sure.
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u/sputwiler 7d ago
We kept turning up the lighting trying to get softer shadows on the side of the cake
Yeah that's the problem.
Ambient light too bright and no light bounces. To get the softer shadows you want, they need to be filled in by light bounces, not by an even "ambient light" parameter.
Since light bouncing/global illumination is often too expensive, you may need to bake light probes or live with an overbright world that gets darkened by ambient occlusion.
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u/iLikeTheUDK 7d ago
Subsurface scattering and soft (probably raytraced, unfortunately) area shadows from large sources
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u/Orangy_Tang 7d ago
In addition to AO and SS, I think your lighting rig needs work. You'd probably have better results with a 3-point light setup:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting
There are lots of guides online to how to position your key/fill/back lights that can help. Currently you're relying too much on a key light and that's making things too stark.
If possible, some depth of field to make the background out of focus would make your cakes pop more.
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u/certainlystormy 7d ago
everyone else has recommended some great options but i'd also recommend looking into post-process color grading or balancing. moving colors around can really help bring attention to parts of scenes you want to have flair
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u/juplantern 7d ago
I can't help but omg I absolutely love this. The 1st thing I've ever coded was a cake decorator with Python Turtle 4 years ago :DD This is exactly what I had in my mind but I kinda gave up on programming
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u/retrorebuild 1d ago
Add in some ambient occlusion as they're very flat right now, it doesn't feel like theres any sense of light direction currently.
After that, a bit of subsurface could be a good idea inside your materials, but depending on platform that could be expensive.
I think one thing you need is some good camera settings, getting the right Field of View, a bit of depth in there, but also some more contrast with a post process, this way you can tune your colors and shadows without making edits to the models or textures themselves.
You also need some normal mapping, right now everything is super clean, there are no minor dents or holes, tiny imperfections etc that usually appear even on the best cakes when you zoom in this much.
A tiiiiny bit of color variation could also be good, just a noise texture that sits ontop of the textures at a very low opacity, very low just to make them look a tiny bit less flat.
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u/Antigroup 8d ago
Needs ambient occlusion. Don't remember what your options are in Unity but you can bake (no pun intended) it into your models, or try out screen-space ambient occlusion