Lighting and Emotion

Lighting and Tension

Light is simulated by the manipulation of these following influencing factors;

Brightness/Luminance
Colour
Hard/Soft shadow quality
Direction
Variation over time.

Lights in a scene will interfere with surfaces and other light sources and introduces the effects of brightness and colour contrast, colour bounce and shadows. The temporal factor is believed to be key to the effect of this approach due to the nature of the eye and it's need to balance the projected colour in order to achieve white colour. For example, when projected with red colour, the eye will try to compensate with cyan to attempt to achieve white colour, causing the eye fatigue which in turn directly affects the participants stress level, and has a knock on affect on arousal. 

In a lighting analysis study conducted by Magy Seif El-Nasr, Simon Niedenthal, Igor Knez, Priya Almeida and Joseph Zupko for GameStudies.org; they analysed an array of films in order to determine a selection of patterns of lighting which could then be further broken down into the following categories;

• 1. Patterns which subject the audience to a series of low contrast images followed by high contrast images, and vice versa, (in terms of brightness or colour tone eg warm/cool) increase projected tension
• 2. Patterns which subject the audience to low affinity of colour, followed by high affinity of colour, and vice versa, (in terms of saturation/brightness/warmth) increase projected tension.
• 3. Patterns which subject the audience to a long duration of high contrast of high affinity colour (in terms of saturation/brightness/warmth) causes increased projected tension.

Typically, the greater the contrast in a visual component  the more the visual intensity or dynamic increases. The greater the affinity in a visual component, the more the visual intensity or dynamic decreases.  

When speaking of intensity or dynamic it is in relation to the emotional reaction the audience/player feels. The reaction can be emotional (laughing, crying, screaming) or physical (tensed muscles, covering their eyes or fidgeting.) Normally, the more intense the visual stimulus, the more intense the audience's reaction will be. (Block. 2001. The Visual Story - Seeing the Structure of Film, Tv and New Media.)

The above patterns have been embedded within games statically by manipulating of materials and lighting in levels. Horror games such as the "Silent Hill" series are a good example of how lighting patterns can be used in games in order to contribute to and enhance gameplay.

Survival Horror games typically create their emotional effect by establishing and maintaining a state of vulnerability in the players mind. This is usually achieved by keeping the player in the dark in terms of knowledge about whats going on - to maintain an element of suspense and tension. Visuals are used to enhance this feeling of vulnerability by keeping the object of terror, be that a monster or a creepy looming objective destination, at least partially obscured, enhancing the "thriller" aspect of the game. Obscurity can be produced by anything that blocks clear perception ie : darkness, fog and blocking by architectural objects (occlusion).

This particular genre of games appear to rely on contrast, be that the contrast of day/night, light/dark, and warm/cool. In the study conducted by El-Nasr et al, they found that both Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill 2 have a similar day/night cycle over the game as a whole. That is to say, it begins in the daytime, followed by dusk and night to be completed at dawn or sunrise. Typically, the majority of all action in these games takes place at night or in foggy moonlight, where there is little bright light sources and a lot of contrast and visual obscurity. Much of the action takes place away from natural light sources in the interior spaces, creating the feeling of tension and a sense of being trapped. 

El-Nasr et al state that the lighting patterns identified above are most often experienced in time through the exploration of virtual space; that is to say that they are reliant upon the players movement from one environment to another. Most game environments are currently built with static lighting which allows for little variation in order to account for state change or tension, and can often bring the player out of the narrative context and in doing so, break the immersive emotional power of the game.  

Dynamic Lighting

Simulated lighting in virtual game worlds, like light in real space, has an effect on the emotional experiences of players. The established link between visual sense and emotional response shows that game designers have a vast array of powerful tools at their disposal with which to create and manipulate moods and atmospheres, as well as being able to directly affect the mental state of the player. Like much of environmental narrative approaches, many lighting techniques used in game have already been established in traditional media such as theater, film and architecture. Game designers have adopted these established techniques and practices and applied them to the game world to enhance the sense of aesthetic space and control the player experience by  determining the materials and scene lighting to generate a particular feel and atmosphere for each game level.

"While many lighting principles can be borrowed from film and theatre lighting design theories, the interactive nature of games distinguishes them substantially from film and theatre." - El Nasr et al ( http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/elnasr_niedenthal_knez_almeida_zupko )

Games are dynamic and interactive, therefore they are unpredictable in terms of lighting as the freedom afforded to the players will interfere with the player positions and cannot always allow for realistic lighting or perfect reactionary lighting effects which are relevant to the narrative context..  This is where Dynamic Lighting comes into play. Dynamic Lighting is a simulated illumination which is calculated in real time, enabling reflexive and relevant lighting calculations which can account for interactive real-time variables such as player positions, narrative context and camera movement. An example of a game which uses this type of lighting is Skyrim from Bethesda. 

The lighting changes with camera movements (if you stare into the sun, there is a glare, and shadows change depending on position.)
This use of dynamic lighting enhance player immersion in the game world and allows for more dramatic content and emotional experiences in comparison to methods which rely on static lighting.

Lighting is a complex process. Moving the position of or changing the colour of one light could change the entire perception of the image/environment, or it could have no perceptual change at all in relation to the current colours used in the image and the context. Vast and minute changes in an environment, and its relative connotations, can be achieved by changing the parameters of colours, positioning and angles in relation to the textures, colours and materials within an environment. Dynamic Lighting therefore requires a dynamic system which take into account all these variables and produces the right effect in relation to the current narrative context and game state.